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When you’re web-savvy, it can be hard to understand why more people aren’t getting online and making the most of all that the internet has to offer. But for people who have never used it before, the internet can seem like a complicated and baffling interface.

The not-for-profit company We Are What We Do, with support from Nominet Trust, have set out to introduce more people to the online world in an easy and effective way.

Introducing easy internet access

Internet Buttons is an innovative and intuitive application designed and developed to help people get online and become more confident internet users.

Launched in October 2010, it has since attracted in excess of 7,400 registered users.  Between them they have created more than 14,000 buttons.

Lucia Komljen, Communications Director at We Are What We Do, explains how Internet Buttons work:

"Internet Buttons is an easy-to-use digital application that introduces a new or nervous user to the internet. Confident internet users, working either alone or with the person they are supporting, set up an account and then create a unique webpage for the new user. This page can then be personalised with shortcuts direct to their favourite online tools and websites and set up as the new user’s default homepage."

A personalised homepage

“Once created – something that takes just a few minutes for regular internet users – Internet Buttons makes accessing the web and the websites you’re most interested in really easy,” says Lucia.

“And it gives new or nervous users a chance to gain confidence in a simple setting, which has been custom-made by their friends or family. If you like, Internet Buttons act just like the stabilisers on a bike!”

Connecting you to the sites you like

The range of buttons that people have created really does vary. Some want access to websites for online banking or council services. Others have more social requirements, and want Internet Buttons that link directly to services like Skype, their email account or a club website. One user even set up his parents with an account from abroad and included a button linked to his Amazon wishlist so they could easily choose gifts for him at Christmas!

“Inevitably, as users become more confident online, they will eventually move on from Internet Buttons – but that’s great,” says Lucia. “It means that we have fulfilled our purpose of not only getting people online, but showing them how they can benefit from staying online too.”