Designing for the default user

Lorcan Dempsey blog comment:
"There is some evidence that electronic resources - databases say - near the top of lists are more heavily used. The 'default user' seems a relevant way of describing those library users that pick the database from near the top of the list. One way of characterizing the challenge of providing access to electronic resources is to try to get relevant resources to the 'default user'. "

Default user is defined in an article (The battle of the portals -- Oct 20th 2005 | SAN FRANCISCO --From The Economist print edition) :
"Default users are “the great unwashed”, says Mr Varian. They are the ones who, for instance, use MSN because it comes pre-installed in Internet Explorer, the web browser that itself comes pre-installed on new computers. By contrast, teenagers and geeks mix and match their web mail, IM, online maps, search, blogging and so on from whichever service on the internet they happen to like best. Default users are less demanding, older but nonetheless rich enough to target with small hyperlinked text advertisements. "

Web fonts

I've been following a thread on the Innopac Users list about use of web fonts. In general, the responses have all been similar -- Verdana, Arial, Helvetical, sans-serif. On thing pointed out to me which I needed reminding about is that Verdana distinguishes between O and zero, I and l, etc., which some sans serifs don't. One respondent also referred people to this url which is a good brief refresher:
http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/archive/websafefonts.html