It’s estimated that 19 million people in the United States lack access to reliable broadband internet service. Most of them live in rural areas and pockets of urban areas. This is sometimes referred to as the “digital divide.” The digital divide was first identified 30 years ago,9 and while there’s been progress on closing the gap, barriers to access remain. Most often, these connectivity barriers are related to affordability — but in rural environments, there may be inadequate infrastructure and poor broadband penetration. Older adults, people with disabilities, and people who are Hispanic, African American, American Indian, or Alaska Native are least likely to have reliable broadband service.
Smartphone dependency
While smartphone use has become common across population groups, about 15% of U.S. adults are “smartphone dependent” — meaning they only use the internet on their phones because they don’t have broadband internet at home.10 Smartphone dependency has several implications for digital designers. While small screens pose few issues for activities like browsing social media, they can make filling out forms and reading complex health information difficult.
In addition, mobile data usage is a concern for many smartphone users. Data plans can be expensive, and it’s easy to exceed usage limits, resulting in overage charges. By designing with low connectivity in mind, you can reduce load time and data consumption for mobile users with limited bandwidth or storage. See Section 3.3 for more on designing for digital deserts, dial-up, and slow internet speeds.
A note on terminology: user/users
In the context of this resource, “user” or “users” refers to a person or people using a digital product — like a website, smartphone, or computer.
