They are our future leaders, our future scientists, our future creatives. Teenagers and young adults are the next up and coming generation to take over our society, and as much as you think that they aren’t your target audience now, sure enough they soon will be.
They are a generation who grew up with technology and internet access and leaving a bad impression could be a fatal mistake, as having a bad experience of your website and interface at this age could potentially put them off your brand in the future. So how do you make your website user friendly and help UX (user experience) for the next generation? Read on to find out.
1. Ignore the stereotypes
This generation of teens and young adults are the first to have grown up completely surrounded by the internet. They are way ahead of past generations in terms of exposure to advertisements, visuals, technology. They want to be treated as adults, and will turn away any website that attempts to ‘baby things down’. Just because you want to keep the young adult in mind does not mean you should pander to the stereotypes. To a certain extent, designing for the younger audience means targeting the person, not the age range.
2. Embrace fluidity
With each and every day, society is becoming more and more fluid. Teenagers are all about breaking down barriers and conventions and this should be kept in mind when designing a website. The old school delineations such as blue is for boys and pink is for girls no longer apply, and designing in that way may even lose you traffic.
3. Don’t be afraid of colour
Earlier, we said that websites shouldn’t be designed with the specific age group in mind, but that doesn’t mean you should be afraid of colour. The UX is all about catering for people, and this generation lives for colour. Anything and everything goes, from embracing neon to being fearless with gradients and mixed patterns. You can be sure that if it catches your eye and makes you look twice, it will do the same for the younger generation and keep them engaged and on your website. Mirado does this beautifully. By using bold, stand out colours, it instantly catches your eye and tells you exactly what it’s about.
4. Make it shareable
According to Brandwatch, the average daily time spent on social media is 142 minutes a day. That’s over two hours of scrolling through other peoples lives, seeing what people share and seeing what people connect with. It makes sense that your website is shareable. Spotify recently created a new meme inspired ad campaign, an ingenious way of using colour to make the adverts eye catching and also using the format of memes to make the content shareable.
5. Keep it neat
Your website should be fun, but this doesn’t mean it needs to be cluttered. Whilst being bold and colourful, the design must still be clean and easy to use. Growing up in today’s society filled with visuals, teenagers have a strong appreciation for aesthetics and due to social media, expect instant gratification. According to Cubicle Ninjas, 86% of visitors want info about products/services on the homepage. You’ll find that they’ll quickly leave a website if they find it cluttered and the content confusing.
By keeping these 5 points in mind, you can create a beautifully and thoughtfully designed website with a seamless UX that keeps your audience in mind, keeping them happy and ensuring they come back time and time again.
Here at Sleeky, we specialise in creating beautiful websites with beautiful UX that also rank well in Google. Get in touch to see how we can help you and your brand.
