How to Make Your App Future-Friendly: Generation C Guide

Wherever you are and whatever you do, you can cope with your tasks just by making a reach for a smartphone connected to the Internet – there is a high chance to solve problems this way. Nowadays, there is an app for any purpose. And there are billions of people who have no idea how to reach those purposes without access to the Internet.

A vast number of new apps continue to be launched and disappear from the market without proving their cost-effectiveness. Much has been said about millennials as the tech-savvy and economically active population that is responsible for apps in business triumph or failure. In fact, millennials are not the only ones to be guilty of it.

Millennials are the people born between 1982 and 1996. By today all these people are already adults, and most of them are quite mature. That is true that they are economically active and a great deal of project commercial success depends on them. But it is also the truth that millennials, a generation that was allowed to be forever young, are not the youngest anymore.

They are the present, but not the future. According to statistics, 95 percent of teenagers – so-called Generation Z – in the USA have constant access to the Internet, half of them claim to be always online, and they make a great share of profits Internet activities bring to the business.

If you are bothered with the future of your business, you obviously have to consider the target audience. The global success is determined by the ability of an app or website to attract attention and gain the loyalty of the audience that influences nowadays technology the most.

That means more and more businesses are looking for ways to become more or less future-friendly by making apps for youth or adapt the design for millennials. The key to the understanding of this audience’s needs and make a future-friendly app is not the time when they were born, but their psychology.

Generation C is a recently appeared term where C stands for Connected. It means members of this generation live being connected to the Internet. They are always online and they treat technology not as just the instrument to help them solve some daily issues but as one of the most important features of their lifestyle.

Healthcare, careers, entertainment, finding a partner – whatever they need, they search for some app or website to do it. Despite the fact that people inclined to pigeon-hole everything and Generation C is often defined as the generation of people immersed to the Internet from an early age, in fact, 15 years old and 75 years old can both belong to Gen C. The portrait of a user you have to target at is characterized by certain values and behavior.

So, what are the Gen C values and how do they affect their behavior? 

And how future-friendly relates to web design and development? 

They Want to Participate

Gen C tends to share their opinions, take part in polls, and give feedback on services and products. They appreciate the opportunity to search for interesting events or places relying on someone else’s opinions. Moreover, this generation actively forms groups depending on socials status, professions, political affiliations or any other preferences.

On practice: Sense of belonging is the reason why apps with any reviews or recommendations, for instance, FourSquare or IMDb are so popular, as well as social networks or resources to share opinions or find like-minded people.

They Strive for Attention

Except for forming groups and sharing opinions, there is the reason why social media are so popular nowadays. Generation C shares details of their lives in search of approval and recognition. We try to show the best of our routines and busy counting followers and likes.

It also has an impact on economics – people popular online influence opinions and behavior of the users strongly, helping them to choose what services to apply for and what products to buy. Thus, social networks became one of the most influential marketing channels. 

On practice: Not surprisingly, Instagram is the second in the top of the most popular apps for iOS in 2018. The facts speak for themselves – people love talking about themselves and you may benefit greatly from it.

They Value Privacy

Despite the fact that Gen C is quite opened talking about their lives online, the killing feature of a lot of popular youth apps and the reason for a lot of scandals in media is the issue of privacy. The user values the opportunity to keep their lives private, so a reliable security system is crucial. Anonimous or quickly deleting messages have also gained great popularity among Gen C, especially the youngest of them.

On practice: Not only pretty masks made Snapchat popular among teens, but it is also about instantly self-destructing messages. There are also loads of anonymous chat apps, such as Omegle or Whisper.

They are Always Connected. Really, Always.

Gen C is fully equipped with all the instruments to take control of their lives, and they happily use such opportunities. A lot of old habits that took place on the pages of notebooks now are transferred to digital.

And the task to make truly popular app became difficult since you have to stick to two antithetical principles – the app for future has to address existing habits without forcing to create new ones, but the idea itself must be new, since competition between the applications with similar functions is great and can be the real reason your app won’t break through – users may have already found something to solve their problems.

On practice: There are apps to control finance, health, lifestyle and so on. For example, Goodreads successfully addressed the habit of many to make reading lists, or Couchsurfing and Airbnb to organize a holiday.

They Strive for Creativity

Gen C is nothing in common with baby-boomers – they don’t want to spend days in an office, building their lives according to the schedule of typical office monkeys. Even having an office job, they are inclined to combine it with unusual creative hobbies, but more often they try to turn their hobbies into the source of income.

They are not into rigid social structures, and would rather pick an opportunity of personal growth. By the way, this personal characteristic is responsible for them appreciating cross-platform solutions – they are immersed in online life and like solutions to be flexible to suit their inquiries. Actually, mobile apps are the future of business. Also, an app can be one more instrument for such people to satisfy their demand for self-development and help them express themselves.

On practice: There are resources to boost creativity or get inspired – Behance, Dribbble and so on. Also, there are apps, at least, to make your photos prettier, such as Adobe Lightroom.

They Do Things Just for Fun

The way to draw Gen C’s attention is to entertain them. Like any other generation, Gen C wants to be entertained, but for them, it is the reason and the final goal – they may use an app until it is great fun.

On practice: The thing you might have thought about are games or some music or video apps. That`s true, the game industry is huge, and the most popular iOS app is still YouTube. But it is not the only use of entertainment. Gamification can be beneficial for any app – users love to have fun, that’s one of the principles of design for millennials.

Generation C, no matter how young they may be or how their midset may differ from yours, is the audience to speak to, the audience to give the feedback and to be in charge of the future of the business. If you go for a truly successful app, you have to consider their interests and values.