I believe it is no secret that the design of your website must match the age group it refers to. However, although this is not a secret, many web designers encounter certain difficulties when creating their website age appropriately. Some are puzzled by the colors they should use, others find it hard to pick the right font size, and the list may continue. Anyway, in this article you will learn more about this topic, so that in the future you will not be intimidated by the age group factor.
The Importance
The first thing you should know is why the age group is so important. First of all, taking into consideration the diversity of age matters because users need websites that will respond to their requirements. Therefore, it is mandatory to think about this aspect, because people desire their favorite webpages to be easy to access or use, appealing and at the same time fit for their character and preferences.
At the same time, creating for age groups matters because, if the web designer would focus only on a specific group, then the others would feel excluded. And, since a designer’s main dream is to have a highly visited website, then you should not give the others the feeling that they are left outside. Make them all feel special, and do not forget about the younger ones either. And, since they will be the future generation of web designers, it would be great if they would have many things to learn from the previous generations.
Children, teenagers, adults and elderly create the age groups web designers should take into consideration when creating. As you can see, no one should be left outside, on the contrary, everyone matters and as a result in this article you will get a few tips that will enhance your work, when designing for these age groups.
Children
Nowadays, having more than one computer in a household is no longer considered to be a luxury. As a result, these days, children gain computer skills from early times. This is something that web designers must think about when working on their projects, because children have different expectations than adults. They are easy to get distracted, they will click on the most colorful advertisements and also they will get bored easily if the website does not respond to their needs (those of being entertained). So, you will have to be careful at the ads you place on your website, otherwise children won’t stay there longer.
However, the great thing about designing a website for kids is the fact that they access a webpage mainly because they seek fun, entertainment and amusement. As a result, a web designer may guide them towards exploration and interaction. If you would like to know what, is the secret to success when creating such a design, then you should know that it is a colorful experience that provides knowledge and fun. Keep this in mind and you will gain loyal visitors. Besides that, make sure that your website will be devoid of inappropriate ads and distractions, but at the same time it will provide iconography, vivid colors, animation and sounds (this is fantastic for kids) and games.
Teenagers
Everybody knows that this age group is more complicated and that they usually hate when others refer to them as kids, when they come across slow websites (they usually lack patience), when they encounter long and cluttered blocks of texts and they definitely avoid those websites that present child-like color schemes.
Now that you know what teenagers dislike, you will definitely avoid creating a cluttered design. You will pay attention at the arrangement of your text and you will divide it into readable sections, while bringing harmony to it thanks to the proper use of graphics. Also, keep in mind that teenagers like to socialize and to state their point of view, so make sure that they will be able to vote for something or that they will be allowed to comment. Oh, and last but not least, your website should adopt a cool touch, through more neutral shades.
Adults
This age group has certainly a goal in mind when accessing a website. Either they seek information, interaction, entertainment, online shops or relaxation; adults will definitely desire rapidity and accuracy. This means that they will only use those websites that seem trustful and that will help them complete several projects, without doubting the quality of information.
As far as colors are concerned, adults do not fancy those vivid ones, they are not very pretentious, concerning this topic, but they just want to find combinations that match, that are not flashy and that do not distract them.
Bottom line, when designing a webpage for adults, it is advisable to make use of simple yet smart features, because these will let the users know that the page they have accessed will respond to their needs and wishes.
Elderly
These people are characterized by patience; therefore they will be willing both to explore the web and to achieve certain tasks. Anyway, they being patient doesn’t mean that you may feel free to insert images or videos that will cause the website ages to load. Regardless the age, people do not tolerate websites that consume their time. The point is that these people search the web, because they want to find news or information in areas that they are not familiar with.
The main things that one should remind when creating an elderly appropriate design is that the texts should be visible, readable and memorable, the graphics should be entertaining, the font size should be large while the colors should be like in the case of adults, in matching combinations and not flashy.
In the end, it is important to think about the age groups when creating a web design, because depending on their age people have various expectations and therefore not every feature will respond to all groups. However, there are certain similarities, such as fast loading, readable texts (divided into small units), entertaining, yet full of purpose graphics, and so on.