Solutions: Better Design

Abstract

In the chapter 3, we established that the consequences of insufficient levels of digital skills are exclusion from the contemporary and future information-based society. These skills are the key to the information society. Therefore, there is a strong need for policies that attempt to compensate for low levels of these skills, especially policies aimed at those with the greatest need. Because the levels of Internet and other digital skills differ among segments of the population, it is necessary to utilize a variety of treatments. Thus, digital skills are a complex policy problem that calls for both technological and educational solutions. Livingstone (2003) considers literacy to be an emergent property of the interaction and mutual dependence between people and ICT. Therefore, communication failures may be as much a result of poor interface design as of poor education. However, in discussions of the population’s failure to achieve certain levels of literacy, it is implicitly assumed that interfaces are well designed and merely await appropriate use (Livingstone, 2003). Although it is unknown how poorly designed interfaces and contents of low quality interact with levels of digital skills, it might be expected that people with low levels of skills experience additional difficulty.