The Nielsen Norman Group has published the results of new research into how teens interact with digital devices, and how to design interfaces that work better for teens.

Using a combination of usability testing, field testing, interviews and focus groups, researchers studied a group of 100 teens - aged 13-17; in US, UK and Australia; affluent and disadvantaged; girls and boys - on 210 websites and apps, some specifically targeting teens, others not.

Key findings:

Reasons teens visit websites:

• To achieve some sort of goal related to school, hobbies, friends, news, shopping
• To research products and build wish lists of stuff for adults to buy them

Differences between teens and adults:

• Teens give up more quickly.
• Teens are less cautious, make snap judgments.
• Teens complete fewer tasks successfully.

Why teens perform worse than adults:

• Poorer reading skills
• Less sophisticated research strategies
• "Dramatically" lower levels of patience

Websites on which teens perform best: Sites requiring little reading

Content and layout guidelines:

• Write for impatient users.
• Don't make them read
• Display content in small chunks with lots of white space.
• Use words teens understand.
• Use short sentences and paragraphs.
• Put key points or steps in bulleted lists.
• Write for 6th-grade level or below.
• Teens will skip over any content in tiny text.
• Teens won't tolerate dull content.
• Use visual elements (think pictures).
• Don't overdo interactive elements.
• Fast-loading pages are essential.
• Avoid sounding condescending - teens relate to content created by peers.
• Don't use the word "kid" in reference to teens.
• Provide links that facilitate sharing of content by direct message.
• Design for small, mobile screens.
  • Avoid small or closely-spaced elements - make it easy to click on things in touch-enabled devices.
  • Frustrated teens will blame your design and not their own undeveloped cognitive abilities.

Teen attitudes:

• Search: Rely on heavily but have trouble formulating queries; click top results in SERP.
• Patience: Hate waiting, easily distracted.
• Trust: Have difficulty assessing credibility.
• Privacy; Hesitant to enter personal information.
• Advertising: Hate popups.

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Comments:

This disciplined, structured research study largely confirms what we already thought we knew from anecdotal evidence. But there are some gems in there:

• As with every generation, content for teens needs to help them attain some goal of importance to them. They're not just randomly web-surfing.
• Make max use of pictures (vs. words) to get points across.
• Grade 6 reading level is where copy should be written for most adults. Any group with poorer reading skills - which research shows includes teens - needs yet simpler vocabulary and structure.
• Talk to teens as peer-to-peer, not adult-to-child.
• Don't use the word "kids" in any content for teens, and don't create compromise content intended to target both teens and younger children.
• Facilitate link sharing - otherwise teens may take and share screencaps of your ads with no link to your website.
• Resist any temptation to take advantage of teens' difficulty in assessing credibility.
• To be found by teens more easily in search, invest time in finding out the language teens use to search for stuff like yours, and incorporate it into your ads and content.
• Make all your online content load fast. Use Google's free Mobile-Friendly test to assess your design and content, and follow Google's recommendations to decrease loading time.
• Register your website with Google Search Console, to get warnings about too-small text, clickable elements too close together, etc.