Studio Brief 2 - D&AD Telegraph - Primary Research into The Older Demograph

As both an Lo conducted Twitter polls to hear the opinions of younger readers. It was also important to hear from the older demographic. The majority of current Telegraph readers are of an older generation, so It was important to understand their take on news and their transition between newspaper and digital and whether some old people still prefer reading the newspaper then digesting their news digitally.

We both wanted honest opinions so we asked our older family members question about how they prefer to digest the news. The questions are as follows:

How often do you read the news online?

"Not often, I usually buy a newspaper and read it at home"
"I don't read news online at all"
"Very often, I have a news app that sends me notifications when breaking news happens, so I keep updated with it that way"

Would you use online applications or websites if they were simpler to use?

"Yes definitely, I haven't really thought about using online news because it hasn't really caught my attention"
"I don't know, I'm not very computer savvy. But if I could work out how to use it I might give it a go!"
"I think it could be simplified to make it easier for those who are new to it, but I use computers a lot anyway, I'm very technologically aware"

Do you think a space for users to create a constructive 'comment' or 'response' to articles would be useful for people of your age?

"I think so, it would be very interesting, I would like to be able to engage with articles more"
"I don't think I would use it but definitely for other people who are interested in writing"
"That sounds extremely useful, the more you know about a subject the more you want to share it with other people, it could even educate others on certain things. Sounds very good to me"


It's clear from the results that a lot of older audiences are open minded about technology and what it has to offers. Many are sometimes reluctant to transition or fully invest their time into digital news because they grew up in a world without it. From these results we can apply features that would benefit the older readers. For example, if we applied animation or effects within the app, some older users might be hesitant to use it as they aren't confident enough. We could implement a help guide around the app that demonstratse how features work to make older readers more comfortable.