OPCs and Online Daters: Not the Freaks You Think They Are

It was no surprise to anyone in the class that Online Political Citizens (OPCs) are disproportionately Influentials. IPDI's Putting Online Influentials to Work for Your Campaign, says that contrary to popular belief OPCs are not "cyber-geeks" living in their mom's basement. They're actually involved, normal people.

The misconception many people have about OPCs they also have about online daters. I watched ABC's new reality show Hooking Up last Thursday and thought about how online daters have the same reputation as OPCs, social rejects.

This is a complete misconception! Online activity has come into the mainstream. It's a part of our daily routine. It is a major form of communication, so why would it be so surprising that OPCs and online daters are well-connected, active normal people? It seems to me that both OPCs and online daters are just busy people with jam-packed lives and their computer is a way to multi-task. They can pay bills, check their email, make an online political donation, set up a date, and make dinner reservations virtually simultaneously. These are people we want to reach out to!

IPDI's suggestions of putting OPCs to work for any campaign are pretty straightforward and make a lot of sense.

1. Assemble Them: Everyone wants to feel like they're part of a group. Camaraderie is human nature. OPCs tend to belong to more groups than the average person, so why not give them another great group to join-your campaign!

2. They Are Activists, So Help Them Lead: Let's face it, everyone likes a title. Titles give people a sense of responsibility and ownership.

3. They are Opinionated, So Give Them a Microphone: Distributing talking points is essential to staying on message in a campaign when using OPCs. Even breaking down the talking points to what is relevant in their city or neighborhood can ensure their effectiveness.

4. Fuel the Information Junkies: OPCs are obviously information junkies. Since they spend so much time online where there is unlimited information at their fingertips, they are conditioned to want more information. Send them emails with new campaign information to forward on to their friends and family.

5. They are Busy, So Make it Easy: It's the same thing with online daters. They are busy and don't have time to go to a bar and meet someone. The key to making anything work (especially online) is to make it easy. What has Nielsen been writing about? Increased usability= increased ease.

By dismissing the stereotype we have about people online, we can harness the power and energy these people have. Breaking down the stereotype starts with all of us. I'm considered an OPC and I certainly don't live in my mom's basement. OPCs are mainstream America, just like online daters. Sometimes it takes reading a how-to political booklet or watching a reality TV show to let this sink in.

Once Again, Neilsen Advises Us to K.I.S.S

Jakob Neilsen's suggestions for improving usability for lower-literacy users seem like common sense advice for any website, regardless if they are targeting lower-literacy users or not. I don't think prioritizing information, streamlining page design and simplifying navigation are too outrageous to ask for in a quality website. The ironic thing is that the suggestions he gives are still not followed by a number of websites out there.

For example, the case study he describes. I'm not surprised that a website such a pharmaceutical product’s site would increase usability with both lower and higher-literacy users by incorporating his suggestions. Again, using common sense, pharmaceutical sites often use technical language anyone outside of the medical profession would have a hard time understanding. By making changes to a site like this, of course usability will go up for both sets of users.

It always seems like the usability lessons Neilsen writes about can be identified and solved by looking at our own online experiences. It just baffles me that more people don't think about their own usability frustrations with websites when designing their own site! Just like when we reviewed the email newsletters from the Bush and Kerry campaigns, the best advice we can give ourselves comes from our own online and inbox frustrations.

Give Teens a Little More Credit, Neilsen

I'm really unimpressed by Jakob Neilsen after reading his "Usability of Websites for Teenagers" article. He finds that teens only have a success rate of 55% on selected websites compared to a 66% success rate of adult users. He also concludes that many of our assumptions about teen use of the Internet are wrong. He says, "Teenagers are not in fact superior Web geniuses who can use anything a site throws at them." But there's a flaw in Neilsen's study. The teens he used don't represent the average teen population.

The average teen used for this study only spends 5-10 hours per week online. A Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited study found that the average teen spends 16.7 hours per week online (excluding email). That's double, even triple the time Neilsen's participants spend online! So already his little study loses validity in my mind. Add this to the websites he chose, McDonald's, Pepsi-Cola, Alzheimer's Association...what teen visits these sites?? Teens eat at McD's and drink Pepsi, they don't visit the corporate site. I'm willing to bet that teens did a fine job of navigating through websites geared toward their demographic like BBC Teens, MTV, American Eagle Outfitters and Volcom.

He also says that the people designing the websites spend a lot of time online and the teens they know have similar characteristics, and basically these teens don't represent the general teen population. But they do. If Neilsen would have taken the time to more carefully select a representative sample, he might have come up with very different conclusions. Teens are a lot more Internet-savvy than he thinks.