Young consumers. Generation Yers. “Those crazy Kids!”
You want to reach them online with a website or a Facebook app? You need a specific design framework that takes into account their very unique needs an desires.
Forrester research guru, Bruce Temkin, and myself outlined four Gen Y design principals: immediacy, Gen Y literacy, individualism, and social interactivity.Recently, BusinessWeek picked up on the need to design specifically for Generation Y. Their writer Matt Vella discussed the Gen Y design of Hulu.com.
Hulu’s super-clean functionality, and great video streaming capabilities, makes it an awesome online media site. But when it comes to winning a youth audience, start-ups like Slide.com and RockYou are king. I recently got to interview the Co-founder of Rock You Jia Shen, but that’s not why I’m saying this.
Sites like RockYou they dont’ just distribute media — they let people interact, share, create, and customize content. Which is what Gen Y uses the Web for.
So, for all those going after those crazy kidzzz… here are the four essential design principals explained in The Gen Y Design Guide that every youth-focused experience needs:
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Immediacy: Pull them into the experience quickly and keep them interested
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Gen Y Literacy: Communicate authentically on their level
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Individualism: Allow them to personalize their experiences
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Social Interactivity: Enable them to communicate, and express themselves
[...] is a top site for teens, and their Facebook apps are some of the most popular. As I alluded to, I interviewed Jia Shen, CTO and co-founder of RockYou, about how he and his team target young [...]