Easy-to-use social network service

Abstract

Social media have become important tools for social networking. However, most services are too complicated for people with learning disabilities or cognitive impairments. The problems are mostly related to understanding the different concepts of the environment and related special terminology, but accessibility and usability problems common to all internet services also apply. To tackle these problems, a project was started, aiming to create an easy-to-use social network service for the above mentioned target group by applying user-centered design methods. This paper explains the rationale for starting the project and also describes the some of the implementation methods used. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.