This New York Times article, about retirees playing video games, is a great example of why we shouldn’t target specific audiences when designing products and services.

Loads of people use products in ways we’d never expect. In this case, retirees are using the Nintendo Wii to keep their minds sharp as their bodies age. Heck, they’re even starting senior bowling leagues using the Wii. The controller is much lighter and easier to handle than a real bowling ball, and it’s a great excuse to get some people together and have some fun.

From the article:

“A spokesman [from PopCap Games in Seattle] said that the company was stunned by results of a customer survey last year: 71 percent of its players were older than 40, 47 percent were older than 50, and 76 percent of PopCap players were women.

It turns out that older users not only play video games more often than their younger counterparts but also spend more time playing per session.”

This is pure (educated) speculation, but most video game companies probably spend most of their time focusing on people between the ages of 16 and 34 (give or take), because that’s the typical and expected age range for gamers. But when PopCap Games looked up from their computers, they saw that there were more older people using the games than kids.

The gaming industry may not have designed with this audience in mind, but this audience wanted in on the fun nonetheless, and the group is big enough that it actually took over the company’s target audience. Fortunately, there are games available that appeal to an older crowd. The gaming industry got lucky.

When we design web applications and the like, we need to focus on activities instead of specific audiences. It’s the only way to consistently design things that enable those unexpected audiences to take advantage of our products the same way the expected audiences do.

Posted by Robert on April 4th, 2007