When preparing for a new website, one aspect that should not be overlooked is who will be visiting your website, or rather who you’d like to entice into your website. This is called your target audience.
Your target audience will be the bread and butter of whether or not your website is successful. After all, this is the demographic that is the foundation of your business. This should be researched and investigated upon the conception of your new website. In this article, we’ll discuss age groups, geolocation, and a website’s user interface (UI).
Age Groups
Understanding differences in age groups and defining which you’d like to invite into your website is a key element in deciding who your target audience is. This will likely be a deciding point into what your overall color palette will be and how much stimulation you’d like to bring into your design. Here is a general list of age groups:
- 21 & Under
- 22 to 30
- 31 to 39
- 40 to 55
- 56 to 70
21 & Under
You might think the 21 and under age group could be the easiest to design for, but you’d be wrong. This is a pretty unpredictable age group. You’d want to take a bit more research time to understand what exactly is attractive to this group and what sparks emotion. Of course, an edgy colorful design will most likely be used, but the spectrum will have to be a top consideration.
22 to 30
For the 22 to 30 age group, some of the same design reasoning could still apply from the youngest demographic, though more sophisticated and a somewhat toned down design might be ideal. Reason: you might still want to include some older ages into this group. A longer research time will definitely be warranted.
31 to 39
This age group tends to be where adults start realizing they are in fact adults. Their confidence rises a bit more. They start taking responsibility for their actions and start realizing that they need to start thinking a little bit more conservatively. They are still attracted to edginess, though a simple design quality starts to become attractive. Think modern-contemporary with this age group.
40 to 55
Middle age. Though user interface is always a top priority, this is the age group where it starts becoming your top priority. Edginess could still be considered, though a simple modern feel is probably where you’d most likely want to take the design.
56 to 70
This is the age of traditional values. You’ll find people generally want to hold on to tradition in this age group. Understandably – it’s what they’ve built and foresee passing on to the younger generations. In this age group, the user interface needs to be a top priority. Your website needs to be easily understood and intuitive. Fonts need to be very legible. There needs to be continuity within the page to page reading.
Geolocation
Geolocation is always a consideration – especially when dealing with tourism. You’ll want to appeal to those coming from different areas of the globe. A good example would be Santa Fe. Take into consideration that most tourists coming to Santa Fe tend to be in the older age groups, you’ll want your website to have continuity, and also have colors or designs that can be associated with this town or region. Same goes for a resort in Florida. There should be some kind of geographic associational value within the design.
Your Website’s UI
As said above, a user interface is always a concern. It’s just a standard that shouldn’t be ignored. Pages should be similar in design if not the same. There should be continuity with regards to color, font use, and design in general. A visitor should feel comfortable navigating through your site whether it be edgy or traditional in feel. If all this is taken into consideration and outlined in the beginning stages of website conception, your site will definitely be on the track to success.
If you’d like more information or want to set up a consultation with Jacobito Design, don’t hesitate to contact this New Mexico web design company.