What exactly does it mean for a site to be human-centered?

It means that you don’t have to look at the site and wonder what it is supposed to accomplish. What am I supposed do now?

A site that leaves you wondering why hasn’t achieved it’s goal. The action should be so bright you need to wear shades to not know what you’re supposed to do.

What story does a site/product tell? Is it clear? If it isn’t how can you fix it? Sit down and ask yourself what your audience might think.

Do a “What’s in it for me” a.k.a WIIFM analysis to see what your audience thinks your site is. If it fails that test you know you need to rework your site.

Your message isn’t clear.

Not to worry you can fix it. Put yourself in the position of what your potential visitor is looking for and why they are coming to your site. Make up a little story about what you want your visitor to do and that will help inform your design decisions.

© iStockphoto.com/BartCo

It’s no secret that the financial industry has a serious image problem at the moment. They also don’t have the most user friendly websites either. There are two financial websites that I think are getting it right. They are listening to feedback from their users and making changes that are useful as well. Sometimes those changes meet with resistance but at least they are constantly striving to improve.

The two sites I am talking about are Mint and Smartypig. Mint is a free personal finance, online money management, budgeting, and financial planning software. Smartypig on the other hand helps you save money for specific savings goals, allows friends and family to contribute, gives incentive boosts.

Mint has introduced some really great changes. They have improved the design of the budgeting features within the application. Mint makes financial software easy and fun to use. It can help you focus on your goals and see where your money is going and help you spot trends. I love getting the emails telling me I’ve spent more than I’ve budgeted for coffee. It’s virtual scolding but hey whatever works to get you to manage your money better.

SmartyPig on the other hand is your own virtual piggy bank or as they say “social banking” at it’s best. You can save for a specific goal or have others contribute to your goal as well. Need help saving for baby furniture perhaps? Or your next computer? This is the place to do it.

I used SmartyPig to save for my new sofa. I’ve watched it change since I signed up several months ago. They’ve added a visualizer so you can see how your money grows across your accounts. They are pretty active on Twitter as well. They offer customer service and hold contests. They were on there before it was “hot”. Smartypig also integrates with other financial software sites such as Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe, Rudder, Yodlee and Buxfer.

The bigger corporations should take a cue from these smaller sites. Listen. Innovate. Then innovate some more. It’s not rocket science make a product people like to use and people will use it.

Follow Mint and SmartyPig on Twitter.

The older population is on the threshold of a boom. According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, a substantial increase in the number of older people will occur during the 2010 to 2030 period, after the first Baby Boomers turn 65 in 2011. The older population in 2030 is projected to be twice as large as in 2000, growing from 35 million to 72 million and representing
nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population at the latter date. – “65+ in the United States: 2005″ by the United States Census Bureau

© iStockphoto.com/laflor

In his 2002 article Jakob Nielsen’s Usability for Seniors said that seniors were the fastest growing segment of users of web users. As the above quote illustrates seniors are the fastest growing segment of the population. Even though the study by Nielsen was conducted in 2002 many of the same usability issues are common on sites.

I don’t think the issue of designing for an older generations is addressed enough. We are all going to age eventually. We will need reading glasses. We will lose our hearing. And to top it all off we might have cognitive issues as well. Maybe that’s why…people don’t want to think about it…sounds kind of depressing but only depending on how you frame it!

One point that I find interesting in Nielsen’s article is when he states that

Websites tend to be produced by young designers, who often assume that all users have perfect vision and motor control, and know everything about the Web. These assumptions rarely hold, even when the users are not seniors.

Young designers aren’t the only ones that make assumptions though but having taught younger designers I know how true his statement can be. I also have found that a lot of assumptions are made about what seniors are interested in doing with technology. The new population of seniors grew up with all the new gadgets and some aren’t afraid of technology. I don’t think all the rules that apply to how we develop strategy for the new crop of seniors…hmm..I don’t even like using that word. I just realized my dad is already considered a senior citizen!

A few issues that should be addressed when designing for seniors are

• Reduced visibility – therefore they need to be able to adjust the font size
• Hearing loss – if your site relies on sound or video make sure it can be close captioned
• Loss of fine motor skills
• Memory and learning impairment