It’s hard to argue that the maturation of the Millennial generation hasn’t dramatically altered the landscape of the global economy. As the first generation to be digital natives, this group is in many ways truly unique and divergent from its predecessors. And with Millennials outnumbering Baby Boomers by 15 million, it is understandable that businesses would want to cater to their needs. This is particularly true given that Millennials are now entering their prime earning years and are poised to spend $200 billion annually starting this year.
But just because your business is making efforts to court the Millennial demographic, you’d be doing yourself a great disservice to ignore Baby Boomers altogether. But how can you get Baby Boomers to buy into a Millennial-first world?
It all comes back to user experience. By designing with inclusiveness in mind, you can appeal to Boomers without alienating your younger audience. Let’s take a look at a few UX tips worth considering as you design your applications, websites and other systems.
Baby Boomers Are Physically Different Than Millennials
Many members of the Baby Boomer generation are now dealing with the side effects of aging, which can come in many forms. Blurry vision, hearing loss and shaky hands are all symptoms which can drastically impede user experience. Fortunately, simple design decisions can help to alleviate the potential for these issues.
- Vision impairments can be addressed with the right font sizes, colors and contrast
- Hearing impairments can be remedied with speech-to-text offerings
- Those with shaky hands may have trouble using a mouse. Designing with simple, large buttons can help.
Design Through The Eyes Of A New User
Digital natives have an intuitive knack for picking up new technology, as much of it is based in systems and styles that have always been familiar to them. And though there are plenty of Baby Boomers with smartphones, there are plenty of people that don’t truly use it to its greatest effect. In order to get buy-in from this generation, you’ve got to design through their eyes. Visual cues and micro-interactions can help guide a new user through their experience without getting them lost, confused and frustrated.
Make Sure Your Users Have A Life Boat
Ideally, you want your customers to adhere to your “golden path” to a sale. But if your users get confused along the way, there’s a high likelihood that they’ll abandon their purchase instead of asking for support. Identifying pain points in navigation can be done through user testing and will show you when support is required. Offer your users a variety of ways to easily reach out for support from within the app or website to ensure that the task is not abandoned.
Positive User Experiences Come From Psychological Understanding
Millennials and Baby Boomers are different in many ways. They make purchases for different reasons, hold different beliefs and values, and will expect different things from your business. In order to get buy-in from Baby Boomers, you’ve got to understand where they’re coming from.
As such, you’ve got to ask some important questions:
- What can make brick-and-mortar shoppers trust you enough to buy online?
- How can you convince Baby Boomers of the added value of your digital presence?
- When it comes to expectations and needs, in what ways do Millennials and Boomers overlap?
User experience design works best when it works for the most users. But getting buy-in from Baby Boomers is certain to require a different strategy than you might take for Millennials. However, satisfying one group without alienating the other can be a difficult balancing act. Learn how Uptop can help your business leverage UX to successfully cater to both of these valuable demographics.
