One of the very basic rules to design a website is to ensure that it caters to the target audience. It’s like, if you own a jazz bar, and have a website for it, it’d largely cater to the audience who love that specific genre. 

Similarly, if yours is an Indian restaurant, you’d design a website that would largely attract customers who love or prefer Indian cuisine. 

For a business website to actually flourish and sustain it needs to get not only a heavy number of user traffic but, also, a genuine and targeted one. 

It is for this very reason that GraphicsZoo always understands the demographics of its clients’ target audience, which includes the age group as well. 

And, so, today our focus of discussion will be on creating custom website designs for different age groups and generations.

Website design for kids

Some 10-15 years back, we may not even be considering this age group at all when discussing website design best practices. However, things have changed drastically over a period of time. 

Today, you can see kids starting to learn to interact with the internet through their mobile phones and iPads; quite comfortably. 

Brands that have kids, between the age group of 3-12, as their primary target audience have to ensure that their website is designed in a fashion that attracts and engages this generation. 

The best way to approach the design of a site for kids is to frame it in terms of a journey. If the journey is colorful, engaging, educational, and encourages the user to interact and explore the site, then it will most likely be a successful visit. 

Some of the best practices that you can follow when designing a website for kids include;

• Including interactive elements.
• Keep the interface clean and simple enough to navigate around.
• Look to well-known children’s TV shows. 
• Use a brand mascot (if you have any) to guide kids through the site.
• Use animation and sound.
• Reinforce actions through emotions. 

It is, also, important to remember that this user age group has restricted access to the internet and is marked with parental control. So, you need to make sure that your website has some elements which attract parents too. 

You can provide features, such as parental consent for any collection or use of personal information of any data you may be collecting and providing a very clear overview of this in your privacy policy.

Here’s a detailed guide ondesigning a successful website for kids.

Website design for teenagers

If there’s one age group that is one of the trickiest and toughest to design a website for, it’s the teenagers.

While they are very much aware and confident in their technological abilities, they have much less patience and less advanced reading and research skills – in comparison to adults – which can reduce their success rate of actually completing their original goal.

So, you need to be highly cautious with all the distracting alerts and notifications that pops-up on a website.

Teenagers, as an audience, are constantly looking for the next best thing and, therefore, you need to be on your toes with the latest trends in website designs.

Teens prefer websites that have content they can scan, visually illustrated concepts, and/or content displayed in easy-to-read chunks. To maintain their attention you’ll need to keep content interesting, engaging, and around a sixth-grade reading level.

Teens are also commonly multi-tasking across multiple devices, apps, and browser windows, so keeping your site design clean and uncluttered will help them be able to “visually breathe” and focus on their main goal of why they’re coming to your site. 

Some of the best practices in designing a website for teenagers are;

• Simplify your website design to eliminate distracting material.
• Include plenty of visually stimulating graphics.
• Make sure that your design does not look too simplistic or childish.
• Keep up with social trends.

Website design for adults

This age group is, comparatively, considered to be one of the simplest to design a website for. However, that consideration can actually lead your website design to falter in a lot of departments.

The ‘adults’ target group is considered between the ages of 25 to 60; which is a substantially wider age group. And, while their interests in content style may vary widely, they don’t need radically different interaction features to access that content.

In the U.S., roughly 49% of the population is between 25 and 60 years old and tends to be more affluent than their older or younger counterparts, so this segment has more buying power than children, teens, or seniors. 

Tailoring a website to adults is generally straightforward. If it is accessible and usable by modern standards, then it will likely be useful to them. 

Unlike younger users, adults are much less drawn to animation and sound (favoring text over visuals).

The best approach, however, to make sure the site is usable to your target audience is to conduct user testing of your new digital product and be sure to include test participants across the entire age range you’re targeting.  

One very important factor, however, to consider when targeting the adults in website design is to be inclusive. When you have a wider age group such as this, you need to take into consideration several physical and cognitive impairments.

One such impairment that is pretty common is that of color-blindness. Worldwide, 7-12% of men have some form of color-vision deficiency (CVD), which can make it difficult to navigate a site if the contrast between colors is too low. 

 Here’s a detailed guide we have compiled for you to understandthe basics of inclusive design.

Website design for elderly

This age group includes generation for whom computer, internet, website, are terms which are new; just like the kids. Since this computer technology was not available in their younger days; it may take some time for this target group to get adjusted to the latest technology. 

And, because a majority of senior citizens got introduced to the world of internet it is only logical to keep your website design simple and intuitive. 

The one advantage, however, in designing a website for senior citizens is that they are more open to exploring websites and often more patient than children and adults.

Seniors value interaction and are more willing to research, read, and learn new things. Because they are more experienced in life, they are often very adept at solving problems. Design for this age group should feature easy-to-read text and links that are simple to click. Navigation should be simple and straightforward. 

Additionally, while not suggesting that senior citizens are “disabled,” it is a fact that the deterioration of dexterity, vision, and even their auditory senses commonly happens as we get older and, therefore, does require a similar accessible approach to design.

To conclude…

From the above discussion, it is clear that no one design can cater to every age group. You need to ensure that you are on point with your website design for different generations.

For more help with custom web design, reach out to our advisors at support@graphicszoo.com