Can non-techsavy people comfortably use internet browsers and websites?
I'm thinking about creating a piece of software which will target a very non-tech savy audience.
People aged 26 to 50 with a 6 to 12 year education, most of them would be somewhat literate and most of them would speak English at least at a rudimentary level.
My initial idea for this software was to initially design an "MVP" with an in-browser UI and progress to Android, IOS and Windows apps if it catches on.
However, it came to my attention that the demographic I'm targeting may be hard to engage with websites. Most people (presumably) have been thought by Google how to install an app and once installed, and app is easy to access. However, a using a website would require:
- Users that are aware how to browse the internet from their phone
- Users that are able to understand promotional material that is hinting to a website rather than an app
- Users that are aware of how to use the bookmark feature or the browser history to come back to said website
Besides losing the obvious advantage of having an ever present icon reminding the user of your app, I thought the 3 aforementioned points may make the whole process of adoption too difficult.
All people I know would obviously meet these requirements, however I'm not that acquainted with my audience and I've been unable to find actual studies on this matter.
Maybe the question is a bit too broad, but I thought people with an interest in UX designed are surely the ones who may be able to point me in the right direction. My core question here is how well are these type of people acquainted with using browsers (namely the 3 points I mentioned) and how reasonable would it be to release and MVP as browser only ? The follow up question would be what kind of tips you have to make a website compete with an app in terms of drawing on a modern mobile platform ?