Susan M. Weinschenk's Blog

The AI Bot Invasion, and Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (We Are Turning Comments Off)

This blog has been around for a long time. Really, it’s quite impressive. Our first post was back in 2008. A different age.

Invasive attacks have always been an issue with the internet. There is a forever cat and mouse game happening where attackers find a weakness in the system, some way to make money or some edge, and exploit it at scale. In my brief lifetime there were popup banners, terrible animated ads, spam emails, fake accounts, etc. But for each version through the 2000s and into the later on years it was very much a cat and mouse game.

New browsers prevented websites from popping up new browser windows, ad blockers slowed down the worst ad offenders, and spam email filters rolled out to stop the worst of the email spam. But we are entering an age where it strongly feels like the AI apocalypse is coming for “Web 2.0”, and it will simply not exist as it was.

The internet was founded somehow on strangers trusting each other. And for a while the exploits could be detected, and technological innovations created to stop the exploits.

AI is going to end this all. “Web 2.0” was a revolution where strangers could talk to each other in a new public town square, and sure, most of it became terrible and created our little “fabric of society ending” bubbles, and people are mean, etc. But as bad as it all is, at least it was mostly humans being mean to each other.

AI will soon be able to use the internet about as well as a slightly below average human user. It will become impossible to detect the difference between a server creating millions of lines of text all over the internet, and a real person.

For almost 20 years we have had a comment section on this blog, at one point people actually messaged in comment sections, then the spam got bad, so we subscribed to an anti-spam-comment-software service, that reviewed comments and removed all the spam ones.

Over the last week we have gotten 10x the normal number of comments on our blog, and they are clearly AI, but yet good enough that any human could possibly have written them. Explore this example from today:

“I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.”

This is posted on our site by an AI agent, somewhere in the world, for some reason. Maybe with the goal of demonstrating the “user” is human enough to bypass the anti-spam censors, so that when they actually post the nefarious link it isn’t removed? Maybe just to get a username or email associated with a “real” or valid online persona so that when the “AI” security program somewhere else looks over the internet to determine if an account is used by a “human” there is a digital remains trace out there to put it off the scent? I’m not sure.

But we simply can’t keep up. Very few people use comments sections these days, and they are mostly hot garbage if they do exist. And now, after almost 20 years, they’ll finally be run over by endless AI bot armies that are as good or better than real users.

So we will be turning comments off. We appreciate everyone who read this blog during its heyday, and those who have stuck around since. There really were some great comments as people tried to help one another find new and interesting ideas. But those days are over.

Really the days of being anonymous on the internet are over. Between government pressure and bad experiences because of the AI avalanche, the future of the internet will be verified, with your personal credentials, tracked everywhere you go, and validated by everything you do. Every motion being scraped by some code to put you into a huge dataset, where AI agents monitor every digital action you take. Welcome to our new future.

I will miss an earlier time when a comment at a website came from a human, and people were a lot nicer online. But those days are long behind us. As we cling to the past, we must let it go, and accept a different future. Maybe the end result will be safer and a more pleasant experience, but we certainly will have lost something. With a heavy heart, we turn our comment section off forever.

Thanks,
Guthrie Weinschenk

100 More Things #187: THE COLOR BLUE FADES WITH AGE

Another type of vision issue that occurs when people get older is that their color vision declines. It becomes harder to distinguish colors that are similar and the color blue becomes faded.

It’s not a good idea, therefore, to use the color blue as a code, and even worse to use blue and similar colors to give meaning. For example, if you showed a map with different colors to delineate the spread of the flu virus—where blue means widespread reporting of flu, blue/green means medium-level reports, and so on—older people might find it hard to distinguish the colors.

Takeaways

Avoid using the color blue as a means of providing information.When you’re showing areas of color to give meaning, use colors that are very different from each other.Make sure you have lots of contrast between the foreground (for example, the text) and the background.

100 More Things #186: PEOPLE OVER 40 HAVE PRESBYOPIA

Presbyopia is often called farsightedness. Starting at age 40, the eyes lose the ability to focus on objects that are nearby. This is because the lens of the eye starts to harden. Presbyopia starts sometime after 40 and gets worse until about age 65 when it stays, but stabilizes.

If you’re under 40, it’s hard to imagine what this is really like. But if you know people over 40, you’ve probably noticed that they start holding anything they’re trying to read farther and farther away.
Presbyopia can be corrected with glasses. People with other vision problems who already have glasses often end up getting bi or trifocal glasses after forty.

Presbyopia often remains a problem, however, for people who are using screens. To help those with presbyopia, let them make the text larger on their own. If they can’t, and if your application or product is for people over age 40, consider using at least a 16-point font size.

Note
According to the International Centre for Eyecare Education in South Africa, more than 1 billion people globally have presbyopia.

Takeaways

When you can, let people enlarge the text when they’re viewing your product.When you’re designing a product primarily for people over age 40, consider using what will seem like a very large font to you (if you’re under 40), for example, a16-point font size.Test your product on people with presbyopia to make sure they can see and read what they need to.

100 More Things #185: THE MENTAL MODEL OF “ONLINE” AND “OFFLINE” IS DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT GENERATIONS

Let’s say you come over to visit at my house. It’s getting dark and I ask you to turn on a lamp that’s next to your chair. I phrase the request as, “Would you please turn on the electric lamp?”

You might wonder why I would call it an “electric lamp.” Why didn’t I just ask you to turn on the lamp?

If you talk to someone who is 65 or older about researching a topic, for example, looking for a recipe that includes eggplant, you’re likely to hear them say something like, “I’ll go look that up online” or “I’ll look that up on the Internet.”

If you have the same conversation with someone younger, they’re likely to say, “I’ll go find a recipe” or “Let me see what I can find.”

Adding the word “online” or the phrase “on the Internet” is like saying it’s an electric lamp. So what does it matter that the language is a little different? It shows a different mental model.

People who grew up before the advent of the Internet think of the Internet as a place to go. It’s like going to the library, or going to the store. People who grew up with the Internet don’t have that same mental model.

If you have one mental model about the Internet and are designing or writing about products, you’re likely to use language that conveys your mental model. That’s fine if the people you’re designing or writing for have the same mental model that you do. But if they don’t, then they’ll find parts of your language or your design to be either quaint or confusing.

Takeaways

If you’re older and designing or writing for younger people, ensure that your language matches the audience. For example, filter out references to “go online” or “on the Internet.”If you’re younger and designing or writing for older people, be aware that older people have a different mental model. Make sure to test your designs, labels, and instructions with people who are older to make sure your mental model hasn’t caused confusion in your design or language.

100 More Things #184: PEOPLE WANT FEWER CHOICES AS THEY GET OLDER

Andrew Reed researched age differences in preference for the number of choices (2013).

Across a variety of different types of decisions, older people preferred fewer choices compared to younger people. The age range was 18 to 90. The lessening in desire for choices was a linear relationship: the older people were, the fewer choices they desired.

Takeaways

When you’re designing for younger audiences, offer at least the perception of more choices (remembering that if you give people too many choices, they won’t choose anything).When you’re designing for older audiences, you don’t have to offer as many choices.

100 More Things #183: WHAT PEOPLE FIND VISUALLY APPEALING DEPENDS ON AGE, GENDER, AND GEOGRAPHY

Figure 83.1 shows Google and Figure 83.2 shows Naver. Which search engine visual design do you prefer?

FIGURE 83.1 Google search engine home page.

FIGURE 83.2 Naver search engine.

Naver.com is the search engine for South Korea. Google is the search engine for lots of other places. Whether you found the Google design more visually appealing or whether you found the Naver design more visually appealing has a lot to do with how old you are, whether you’re a woman or a man, and where you live.

Katharina Reinecke and Krzysztof Gajos (2014) researched different visual designs around the world, with men and women of different ages. Here’s what they found:

People over 40 preferred more colorful designs compared to younger people. This preference was even stronger among people over 50.Across all ages, women preferred websites that were more colorful than men did.Men preferred websites with a gray or white background and some saturated primary colors.Women preferred color schemes with fewer contrasting colors.People from Finland, Russia, and Poland liked websites without a lot of colors. People from Malaysia, Chile, and Macedonia preferred websites with a lot of color.People from countries near each other tended to like the same amount of colors. For example, Northern European countries didn’t like a lot of colors.People in English-speaking countries preferred more color than those in Northern European countries.

Takeaways

If your target audience is primarily men, consider a white or gray background with a contrasting color.If your target audience is primarily women, consider using more color, but fewer contrasting colors.When you’re designing for a specific geographical area, make sure you’re familiar with the color and visual design preferences for that region.Test your visual design with your target audience.When you’re designing for a geographic area that you’re unfamiliar with, be sure to have someone who’s familiar with that area on the team to guide you.

100 More Things #182: GAMERS ARE ALL AGES AND ALL GENDERS

Here are some facts about video and online gamers as of 2022 (from the ESA – The Entertainment Software Association):

Two-thirds of Americans (over 215 million) play games regularly, and 75% of those are over the age of 18. The average age is 33 years old.A smartphone is the preferred device for 70% of the gamers. Video game consoles are popular, as are computers. Tablets are less popular for gaming. More than half of the gamers say they play on multiple devices.The most popular type of gaming is puzzles.For older gamers (over age 65) playing to exercise the brain is a common reason. Under 65 the most common reasons to play are to have fun, pass time, and relax.There is a fairly even gender split between men and women.83% of gamers play with others, rather than playing alone.

Geographic Differences

According to the explodingtopics.com website, Asia has the most gamers, (probably because Asia has more people than other parts of the world). And Japan and the UK have the highest percentages of gaming (but not the largest numbers of gamers).

Takeaways

Research who the audience is for your particular game and watch out for making decisions based on stereotypes.Gamers now are all types and ages. Making assumptions without data about your particular audience could cost you poor design decisions.

100 More Things #181: IN MANY COUNTRIES, WOMEN LACK ONLINE ACCESS

Several organizations, include GSMA and the Pew research center conduct research on the gender gap in cell phone and smartphone use as well as access online in general. The gender gap is related to geographical region. In some areas (some parts of Europe and the US), there is very little to no gender gap in online access. In other areas of the world (some parts of Asia and Africa), the gender gap is as high as 30%.

Less online access means less economic mobility through access to information, literacy, and job opportunities.

Takeaways

When you’re designing online products for parts of the world where there’s a large gender gap in online access, it’s likely that most of your target audience is men.When you’re designing online products for parts of the world where there’s a large gender gap in online access, the women who are using your product are likely higher in education and income than many of the other women in that area.Check to see what the gender gap for online access is for the part of the world you are designing before you design.

100 More Things #180: NOT EVERYONE WITH A CELL PHONE HAS A SMARTPHONE

The Pew Research Center conducts research on the ownership of smartphones versus basic cellphones. As of 2019 most people in the countries with “advanced economies” have a smartphone, but in countries that are considered “emerging economies” there are fewer people with smartphones.

For example, in South Korea 95% of adults have a smartphone, and 5% have a basic cellphone. In Sweden 86% have a smart phone, 12% have a basic phone, and 2% have no mobile phone. In Indonesia 42% have a smart phone, 28% have a basic phone, and 29% have no mobile phone. In Nigeria 39% have a smartphone, 44% have a basic phone, and 17% have no mobile phone. And the lowest numbers for smart phones are in India where 24% have a smartphone, 40% have a basic cellphone and 35% have no mobile phone.

The basic cellphones can send and receive calls, texts, and even do some basic mobile banking, but not access apps and effectively use the Internet.

Younger people, those with more education, and those who speak English are more likely to have smartphones.

Note
In many of the emerging economies, very few households have a landline phone. For example, in Africa, only 3 percent of households have a landline phone. Landline phones never penetrated in Africa. Africa skipped landlines and went straight to cell phones. (However, the number of homes in the world without landlines is actually growing, as many places abandon landlines to only have a smartphone).

Takeaways

When you’re designing products for a particular part of the world, find out whether that area has a large adoption of smartphones.Although “mobile first” is a common design principle, don’t assume that mobile use is consistent around the world. Before planning a smartphone app, make sure you understand the smartphone penetration for the countries where your product will be used.

100 More Things #179: IF THE TASK TAKES LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES, PEOPLE WILL USE THEIR SMARTPHONES

According to a survey by Millward Brown Digital if a task is quick (5 minutes), all generations prefer to do the task on a smartphone. But if the task is longer, then all generations prefer to do the task on a laptop or desktop.

But there’s a generational difference in the stated reason why they want to switch devices: people under 30 and people over 60 say it’s because they want a larger screen, while people of ages in between say it’s because they want faster speed and performance.

Takeaways

When you’re designing a task that’s going to take more than 5 minutes to complete, assume that people might not be using a smartphone or may switch from a smartphone to a larger device.Whether you emphasize advantages of speed and performance vs a larger screen should depend on the age of your target audience.