The Heavy Chef Project

Square Eye syndrome

Screens are just about everywhere - PC, laptop, cell phone, T.V, LCD or ATM. What challenges does this hold for online resources and for people who are compelled to use one or many on a daily basis and are at risk from SES ?

Maybe your customers suffer from SES – and you won’t even be aware of it until you go out of business.

But seriously … screen fatigue may be costing you potential customers ( and therefore $s) because their eyes simply can’t see anymore – web browsers tend to act like a SWAT team, a quick in and out to achieve  their objective .

Does your site allow them to do this, OR is there so much STUFF they’re getting visual indigestion?

The concept of screen fatigue is something we don’t hear much about, even if we spend most of our day staring at a screen of some sort  . Children in sub-Saharan Africa are now being taught on laptops at primary school level, on sub-US$100 laptops. SES will be part of their future too, for sure.

So what makes screens boring or hard to see? The average Joe gets bored relatively quickly so screens boredom comes as no surprize. The sheer amount of time we are forced to spend managing screen based communication in a generation or two will drive a technological revolution demanded by users.

Consider the screen fatigue potential in the daily schedule of a typical 12 year old:

Wake up: check Mxit,

During breakfast: watch cartoon network

Drive to school: check Mxit

School: work on class presentation laptop

Break: Mxit

School: look at multimedia history presentation

Drive home: Mxit

Home: Do homework on PC

Break: Playstation time / MTV / EntertainmentTV

Supper time: Watch TV with parents

Bed: Last Mxit update

What we are most likely see, is the rapid development of vastly more 3D content as well as the introduction of holographic presentation ( check out  Minority Report ) in a move away  from purely screen based hardware.

The Microsoft Surface (www.microsoft.com/surface) is shifting visual communication to new heights already and this is seriously awesome technology..

From an online point of view, just one technique to avoid online screen fatigue is keeping your website as simple and to the point as possible. Does your site promote visual fatigue or visual excitement. The choice is yours.

Nicholas Kühne is a marketing consultant and trend forecaster and can be found at Nicholas@kuhneplus1.com