Your Guide To Designing A Website That Is Gen Z Friendly

Generation Z (or simply Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the age group that follows Millennials and comes before Generation Alpha. Beginning birth dates are the mid-to-late 1990s, and ending birth dates are the early 2010s, according to scholars and mass media. The majority of Generation Z participants are Generation X children, but others are early millennials’ children.

People of Generation Z have now been called “digital natives” despite not being technologically literate because they are the first social generation to have matured with access to the internet and portable digital media from an early age. Hence, they are also a generation that has the lowest attention span of any generation before them. This is something we shall discuss further into the article and how you can keep their eyes on your content for longer than a couple of seconds.

Here are some tips on how to design a website that is Gen-Z friendly:

1. Value your mobile website over its desktop version

Generation Z is in school and was raised in a world where cell phones became the main mode of contact. Millennials in the workforce are big mobile device consumers who demand a rewarding and productive online shopping experience when on the go. Even if they do not have a desktop at home, or even a laptop, almost 80 percent of the Gen Z population has a smartphone.

Multi-device consumers outnumber the users that use only desktop or mobile, together as a subset of target consumers. As a consequence, think about your screen interaction with these customers as one in which you must eliminate complicated, jumbled items that waste time but contribute little to no benefit.

2. Make sure your UI/UX has a great design interface

When it comes to the company’s web footprint, millennials are more internet-savvy and discriminating than prior generations. Your site is the first, or possibly second, experience of your business, so invest in a new, high-quality design. It’s important to keep the website up to date and of good quality.

Today’s online users also swipe vertically through websites, scanning text and photographs as they go. Working with a professional web designer who can use visual hierarchy and graphics to direct a visitor’s eyes to specific details and make the website easy to read is a great way to take advantage of this.

Simplicity and clarity are key. Having been exposed to digital content their whole life, they are not easily persuaded by unimpressive design.

As per a 2017 American Express survey, 23% of Gen Z would abandon a brand or website because of badly developed smartphone features. This isn’t shocking, given how important simplicity and reliability are to them. Get their life easier by using visual contact and strong UX. However, if you’re investing time and effort into good architecture, ensure you have the features to back it up.

3. Make sure your content fits your audience like a glove

At any step, Generation Z prefers customized content. According to a WP Engine poll, half of all Gen Z respondents say that they wouldn’t return to a website that didn’t personalize advertising to their tastes.

For Gen Z users, this kind of predictive website UX is truly appealing. Businesses who want to market to this demographic should use personalization features on their websites.

Personalized ad interests are available on YouTube, and are an important aspect for marketers looking to hit Gen Z by ads.

Unlike previous generations, who instinctively search for answers on Google, Gen Z prefers to watch videos on YouTube. Since YouTube’s user interface allows users to easily tap and swipe their way around content, and Gen Z likes motion-based navigation, this is the case.

In the future, Gen Z and subsequent generations are expected to expect motion or animation-based experiences that are more natural than traditional experiences.

4. Optimize your website for longer strings of keywords

No matter which age group you are targetting, you must customize the website and content for long-tail search terms. Millennials aren’t far behind Gen Z when it comes to using this search strategy, so it is only for the better.

Aside from text-based searches, Gen Z and millennials use smart digital voice assistants like Siri and Alexa on mobile devices daily. When a person poses a question or gives a complete order to a smart voice assistant, the AI algorithm can learn the long-tail term and run search queries for them.

Long-tail is becoming increasingly common around the board at this stage. Optimizing the website for Gen Z search queries will help you attract visitors of all ages.

5. Use clear, to-the-point phrasing and incorporate storytelling

Gen Z has grown up with constant exposure to digital content, and hence, has seen all the ad gimmicks that one can be exposed to. It is because of this that Gen Z can easily differentiate a genuine promotion of a good product from a bad or phony-sounding advertisement. Couple that with their short attention span, you’d find that most of these people will click off before even seeing the whole ad to judge it.

There is, however, a way to battle this. And that is through storytelling. “Storytelling” has become one of those buzzwords that everyone seems to be throwing around. The idea behind telling a story through your brand and this means everything from your design elements to your blog content, is just about improving engagement. Millennials will use products and services they feel they connect with. Telling stories is becoming the most popular way to connect with consumers (and not just millennials, for that matter) and build trust. Web design is no longer about just putting graphic elements and words on a page. As you craft your site, think about your target audience and what they would want to know about your product or service. This will help you develop personas and outline your brand story. Don’t over-complicate it, though. The basis of your story is essentially the problem, solution, and success.