Today was the first day of SIGGRAPH 05. Went to a panel this morning on "the eight basic steps to success" when making an animated film. Like all conference panels, some parts were more interesting than others. One thing that struck me though was a the continual assertion that age equaled sophistication. The argument was made several times that you could get away with less sophisticated product if your target audience was young children, whereas the older the audience the more sophistication they could handle.

Now, I have a few problems with this. First off, I have a six year-old and a two year-old and they both constantly surprise me with the sophistication of their analyses of thw world around them. Secondly, I've met more than a few "older" folks (meaning non-children, not octogenarian) that lack more than their share of sophistication. So the question that comes to my mind, and to me this applies to web design and development as well, when did lowest-common-denominator become the bar to shoot for?

I understand the many arguments that surround this ethos, and some have more merit than others. After all, we do want the most people possible to view and enjoy our work. But I also think that as designers and developers (or even animated filmmakers) we have the opportunity to challenge our audiences as well. This isn't an argument for obfuscation; rather, a call to sophistication. I think we would all be surprised at how well our audiences (of all ages) might rise to the occasion.