@Go_ON_UK

Sarah BridgesDirector of Programme & Partnerships@SarahBridges@Go_ON_UK

@Go_ON_UK

Let’s talk Basic Digital Skills

• The opportunity and some research

• What are Basic Digital Skills?

• How everyone with Basic Digital Skills can help

• ‘Designing for your future self’

• Summary

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£ 63 BILLION uplift in UK GDP if global digital

leadership achieved

£ 18.8 BILLION uplift in annual turnover if SMEs

marketed and sold online

10.5 million adults don’t have Basic Digital Skills

1.2 million SMEs need to improve their capability

Cross sector programmes and investment,inc. local action & £15m from Big Lottery Fund

The Opportunity

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The Human Picture

10.5 MILLION PEOPLE LACK BASIC DIGITAL SKILLS

20%

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The Divide is Widening

Access to public services that are increasingly moving online

People can face increased social exclusion as relationships go online. 33% of people got online to connect with friends and family.

Young people without home internet may struggle with educational attainment

People who are online are £440 a year better off on average

90% of future job roles will require ICT skills

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“I don’t need antidepressants anymore, I’m not lonely anymore. I’m part of digital”

A large variety of positive outcomes

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Digital is critical for business growth

25%OF ORGANISATIONS SEE DIGITAL AS ‘IRRELEVANT’ TO THEM

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It helps charities do more for less

OF CHARITIES ARE WITHOUT BASIC DIGITAL SKILLS

58%

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Common causes of digital exclusion

Individuals Small Businesses

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go-on.co.uk

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Shared language – knowing what to say

digitalskills.com

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digitalskills.com

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Digital Skills Charter

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Case study: Go ON it’s Liverpool

June 2011:

29% of adults had never been online

compared with 17% nationally

18 months later…

55% reduction

of people who had never gone online over 18 months

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Case study: Go ON it’s Liverpool P

artn

ers

hip

s

Digital champions• 80 local cross sector partners supported the campaign

• Each partner promoted a specific targeted message that was appropriate & meaningful to local people & embedded digital into everything

• 1,500 digital champions recruited and supported by local partners

Measurement• 55% reduction over

over 18 months of people who had never gone online

• ONS figures for the city

18 months

• 1 City Council90 Councillors supporting

Political Leadership

Population 365,000Never online 104,000

43,000 more online

• BBC National Give An Hour campaign

Promotion

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and now hundreds of organisations are making a difference

We took the lessons learned from

and we shared them

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Digital Skills Charter

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Raina BrodySenior Researcher

Shelley ThomasSenior Researcher

Julie KennedyHead of UX

Lucy ScottSenior Researcher

Designing for your future self

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• Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy increasing

Over the next 20 years the number of 60’s+ will increase by 40%

• Value of grey £

Spending power of over 65’s (2010) = £76 billion

By 2030 this is predicted to grow to £127 billion = growth of 68%

“There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I’m old,

There is no respect for age – I missed it coming and going”

J.B. Priestley

The older population is something we’ll ALL be part of

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• Number of older adults using tablets to access the

internet has trebled for 65-74yrs from 5% in 2012 to

17% now

• Those aged 65-74 are more likely to use a smartphone

now with 20% more compared to 12% in 2012

• Key areas of interest are travel, news, watching TV

playing games and health

• Some older people that would benefit from online

services do not have access or support

Some facts about the older user and technology

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“We assume only younger tech-savvy people will want to

use this”

“We don’t want to see anybody over 65 in this

sample”

“The problem of older users will go away in the

next 10 years...”

“We don’t know any older users who’d want to

participate in our studies”

“We don’t have the time, money, or expertise to set up and maintain a website

that is tailored to the needs of older people”

How often have you heard the following?

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This can result in a vicious cycle of exclusion Products are

difficult for

older users

Older people try them,

have trouble, feel alienated

Bad

experiences

promote

avoidance

Olderusers not

perceived as the ‘target

market’

Products not built with

older users in mind

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VisionHearing

Physical speed

Hand movement and other physical

limitations

Behaviour and habitsMemory and information

processing

So what happens as we age?

Digital considerations made for older people will help people of all ages.

Developing for older people will help 10.5 million people who have low levels of confidence and skills when using digital technology.

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Changes in memory make noticeable changes in behaviour

Because older brains have:

• Slower processing speeds

• Reduced processing resources

• Diminished filtering

Older users are often:

• Slower and more methodical

• More likely to read all information

• Susceptible to issues of cognitive load

• Need more help learning new skills

• Reluctant to try new things

• Twice as likely to give up on a task

• Assign blame to themselves

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Changes in vision accelerate with ageWhat happens:

• More difficult to see objects clearly

• Over 85, one in 20 are legally blind

• Presbyopia – long-sightedness caused by lens hardening

• Pupil shrinkage - require more light

• Loss of peripheral vision - decreased by 25% by 80 years

• Contrast sensitivity diminishes from 40 years -Reduced by 83% by 80 years

• Half of all over 65 years have cataracts

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Changeable font sizes are critical for ease of use

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Digital considerations for people with sensory loss

Which of these colours are typically more difficult for older users to

accurately distinguish?

Did you know that colour blindness increases with age?

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Practical design considerations for your future self

“It’s like a doorbell, you assume you have to press it long and hard to get someone

to hear you”

Older and younger people gesture differently...

Physical movement changes with age

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Make it better

Bad design excludes large sections of the population from the benefits of technology

If you’re a designer, a developer or a user researcher - you can help change that

Following some simple principles, you can create more inclusive products that work better for everyone, especially the people who need them the most

A lot of people in the tech industry talk about

“changing the world” and “making people’s lives better.”

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• Make the argument for inclusion:

– Large audience and a growing population

– More disposable income than any other group

– Loyal customers

• Get product teams exposed to older users during design and development

• Understand needs of older user groups (and how they differ from younger)

• Use easy ethnographic and guerrilla tactics

• Include a +70 sample in research

• Older/younger friendship pairs in research to highlight differences

Start with product strategy

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Practical design considerations for your future self

Less confident users may take longer to do things; time based actions or processes need adjustment

Consider physical speed and dexterity in the design process

Don’t break the back button! Stay in one window on Website

Allow for easy and obvious control of text/image size

Don’t let fashion make you compromise on user focussed design

Ensure text boxes are correct size for user data

Design for colour blindness

Don’t assume older people won’t use your service

Watch out for jargon

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Everyone in this room can play a part in makinga difference

If you pay attention, others will too…

Technology can be a force for change in the way we

treat people who are older, have a disability, are less confident, or all three.

You can stop discounting them, and start including them.

…your future self will thank you

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What can you do now?

• Digital Skills Charter – encourage your organisation and others to engage and commit at digitalskills.com/charter

• Digital champions – become one or recruit and support others –visit digitalskills.com/volunteer

• Basic Digital Skills – consider the needs of the 10.5m people who could be using the internet effectively.

• Share what works – make the internet for everyone

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Together we can help everyone in the UK to reach their digital

potential

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Thank you

@SarahBridgessarah@go-on.co.ukwww.go-on.co.uk