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Based on extensive research, we've developed special Web usability guidelines for young children, teenagers, and senior citizens. Each of these age groups have specific characteristics that designers must understand to attract young or old users to their sites.

But what about people in the middle? We don't even have a real name for them — I usually just call people between 25 and 60 years old "mainstream users." This is by far the most important age group for several reasons:

• There are more of them than in the young or old age groups. In the U.S., 49% of the population is between 25 and 60 years old (35% are younger and 16% are older).
• Mainstream users have all the good jobs; they're the richest, and they spend the most money online.
• Almost all B2B sites target this age group. This is especially true if we extend the "mainstream" definition to include people up to 65 years old; beyond that, we officially start calling them "seniors" in our usability research.
• Virtually all intranet users fall within this group, especially if we extend the age range to 65.