Brilliant Thinking

The breakdown by constituency shows wide differences in the take-up of fast net services says Tim Johnson, founder of Point Topic. Areas with the highest proportion of households with broadband tend to be in dense, middle-class suburbs, he said, especially those where both cable and DSL is available.

Cardiff Central tops the list of most connected constituencies with almost 40% of homes having fast net access, finds net specialist Point Topic. Bottom of the league is Meirionnydd Nant Conwy where little more than 2% of homes are on broadband links. The researchers said the figures reveal the way that technology is accentuating differences between rich and poor.

The map highlights the level of broadband use in the parliamentary constituencies of England and Wales. Figures in brackets are the number of constituencies in the range.

So what has that got to do with design strategy?

It is very clear that there is a divide in accessibility between richer and poorer households, and, with the UK legislation on accessiblity, many SMEs need to take this into account when setting up a website. Current technologies like CSS allow web agencies to produce very lean websites that load quickly. This not only allows for more search engine friendly pages, but provides greater accessibility for visitors with slower connections.

The Emissary Take Away: “Know thy user” is key to delivering a successful solution. Once you understand or profile enough about the user, you can then start to think about the design, the functionality and how you’re going to most effectively deliver it to your audience.