Pod1 Makeover for 'Empty Nesters' Website

According to the UN in 1950, there were 205 million persons aged over 60 worldwide, 8% of the total population. By 2025 projections indicate that the portion of the population over 60 will be growing 3.5 times as rapidly as the total population, so by 2050 21% of the entire population will be over 60.

(PRWEB) September 6, 2006

There is no doubt that the over 60’s market, more affectionately known as “empty nesters”, is a huge area of growth. According to the UN in 1950, there were 205 million persons aged over 60 worldwide, 8% of the total population. By 2025 projections indicate that the portion of the population over 60 will be growing 3.5 times as rapidly as the total population, so by 2050 21% of the entire population will be over 60. This only goes to highlight the need for well designed websites with good accessibility which takes into consideration this global shift in demographics.

With this in mind Pod1 (http://www.pod1.com) was approached by Retirement Villages Ltd, the longest established developer, owner and operator of retirement villages in the UK, to redesign their website. The company offers active older people a supported lifestyle making the company different from most other retirement operators who offer either sheltered accommodation with no facilities or support, or are nursing based residential homes.

The initial brief from Retirement Villages was very straight forward; Pod1 was asked to design a site which fitted in with the needs of people of retirement age today. This was recognised as being different from the more commonly used cliché of grey-haired happy faces so prevalent in this market sector.

The core idea was to give the site a modern look that would appeal to today’s more active, older generation. Making the website clean and fresh yet very easy to use and navigate, while still staying true to the brand and the core functions of the business. The idea of promoting a more active lifestyle through images of the grounds and activities was also central to this theme.

The target demographic for the website meant that the accessibility issue was extremely relevant, so as with all current Pod1 sites http://www.retirementvillages.co.uk is designed to be compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines on accessibility and as such is rated level ‘AA’. This means along with the usual accessibility standards the site also includes functions such as an option to increase the text size, to aid any users who may be visually impaired. The site was also checked with the Lynx text browser to ensure compatibility with the most widely used screen readers. The Retirement Village website was also built with an integrated content management system featuring multi administrator functions, site reporting and stats modules to ensure it is both future proof and scaleable.

As the global population continues to age with the “baby boomer” generation now into retirement age, this market will see continued growth increasing the importance for all websites to be designed to reflect this demographic change.

For further details either visit http://www.pod1.com or go to http://www.retirementvillages.co.uk.

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