Here’s the harsh reality: what you think you know about Gen Z is likely already out-of-date. In fact, the only constant with Gen Z is change itself. And it’s this that makes designing digital experiences that truly resonate with them as customers so challenging; but it’s far from a lost cause.
Digital overload
Extensive research with Gen Z audiences consistently reveals one clear message: they’re busy. Too busy to spend time reading your content. Too busy to try and unpick complex experiences.
But busy doing what? My strong suspicion is that Gen Z are victims to a world of digital intrusion. Alerts, messages, notifications – all competing for attention, all demanding that they must do something, all demanding they do it now.
Understanding this helps you consider how your brand enters this melee. Think you’ll be able to provide some static web pages with text on? Wrong. TLDR. Gen Z are ‘skimmers’ who mostly absorb headers and images, often missing large chunks of content if the page is too cluttered or hard to digest. This is something we’ve seen firsthand in our user testing, with some even copying web content into an AI summariser because they wanted something easier and quicker to digest. Don’t be the brand with the digital experience that pushes Gen Z to run your content through AI because it’s too much to handle.
Hyperpersonalisation cuts through the noise
Making content more relevant is where personalisation can play a huge role. No longer a ‘nice to have’, it should be in your MVP thinking and woven throughout any experience with your brand. And when we say personalisation, we mean intelligent, intuitive experiences that reflect who your user is, and that adapt and deepen as they engage. This includes algorithmic-based personalisation, where content is tailored based on behaviours and preferences; memory-driven shortcuts that recall what’s been previously done and reduce friction; and personalised tracking features, such as stats that chart progress or achievements – think reading goals on StoryGraph or personal bests on Strava. Think of a website that can bend and flex to show the user the exact content they need, fast.
Gen Z also want control. This spans customisation – whether it’s changing avatars, wallpapers or icons – but it also includes data use. Building experiences that use data or gather user input to give that exact user the exact information and next steps they need is great. But also keep in mind that Gen Z expect transparency and are highly cautious of how their data is used. This means any perceived overreach or lack of control will see them run.
The need to stand out
Given the sheer volume of digital experiences that Gen Z encounters (are there any brands left that aren’t trying to digitise their experience?), the need to stand out from your competitors – to generate loyalty and recognition – is greater than ever.
Our Shifting States report clearly identifies that Gen Z are fluid – don’t give them the right experience and you could lose them. And any marketer will tell you: customer retention is easier than customer acquisition.
But here’s the paradox: How do you stand out to Gen Z when you have a smaller than ever window of ‘influence’ to earn their engagement? In this scenario, it’s tempting to fall back on established design patterns that ‘work’, but then you’re not standing out. So what do you do?
The answer here is balance. Find the balance between giving people something that’s easy to use and something that stands out. This is where there’s room for design innovation. Find ways of injecting personality and feeling to your work that helps it set sail in a sea of monotonous digital, but make sure it’s digestible – Gen Z-optimised content that’s communicating key information in a new way.
Seamless experience
Another issue that comes up time and again is fixing disjointed experiences.
Many brands have opted for a SAAS-first digital strategy – not wrong – but, if not well implemented, this can lead to friction in the experience; irritations such as multiple passwords/logins, different information in different systems, different interfaces and poor mobile experience.
This doesn’t work for Gen-Z. Think about the users I’ve already described and then imagine them in this situation. Adaptability is what Gen Z does best, but it also makes them hyper-aware of friction in a brand experience.
Gen-Z needs seamless experience – single logins, actionable information from across systems, and a mobile-first experience. And speed and ease aren’t perks – they’re non-negotiables. In a world of rapid change, slow or clunky experiences aren’t just frustrating – they’re dealbreakers. What older generations might tolerate, Gen Z simply won’t.
This creates both risk and opportunity: brands that deliver seamless experiences can stand out dramatically in a crowded landscape. But success requires more than isolated convenience features like free delivery. It demands a holistic approach to optimisation across all touchpoints, creating fluid pathways that anticipate and meet Gen Z’s needs.
Keeping up with digital-first companies is essential
While the above insight is all well and good, it’s tough for traditional brands who are not purely digital. You provide all the people and infrastructure. Digital is only a small part of what you do. But you’re expected to keep up with digital-only brands, whose sole focus is a digital product providing an experience you now need to match or better. The brands digital native Gen Z are flocking to.
This exists across every sector, but to think about just three:
- Finance (compare Monzo with Barclays)
- Travel (compare AirBnB with Hilton Hotels)
- Insurance (compare Confused with Admiral)
These companies are setting trends and moving with Gen Z. Adapting to their fluidity to predict and get ahead of trends, before they even exist – just look at how AirBnB has shifted its offering from providing hotels to providing a whole travel experience. And doing so through a beautifully crafted, easy-to-use, pocket-size digital interface.
How to make this work
Moving to a brand that provides the experience Gen Z needs can require some major change. But the biggest thing is to make sure you understand and can move with the fluidity.
A model of continuous discovery can help. Rather than conducting one-off pieces of research, think of discovery like a live stream, not just a static snapshot. If you look at the brands cited above, they’re already operating this way – defining new norms.
They’re not running sporadic research projects; they’re digital product organisations built on insight and metrics. And if you want to compete, you need to do the same thing.
You can implement this in many ways, but two examples would be to:
- Go big and go quant using a platform to measure engagement and respond quickly to any noticeable trends in the data. AI is great for this type of data analysis, showing you trends in an instant, but you’ll need further research to understand these trends in more depth.
- Conduct ongoing panel research to understand trends inside and outside of your sector, and regularly experiment and learn with the results.
Make sure you’re circulating research and generating a wider understanding of your audience, so everyone understands who you’re dealing with and what you’re doing about it – so they’re all bought into the mission.
Discovery isn’t always the issue
From my experience, knowing what to do – whether that’s improving a process, changing ways of working or building something new – isn’t usually the problem. Most of the brands we work with already have a good sense of the improvements they want to make.
The real challenge is being able to do them. Things like shifting priorities, unclear strategy, budget constraints, people leaving, or internal politics often get in the way. I think organisations in this situation need to look a bit deeper at what’s holding them back, and be honest about what needs to change to actually make progress.
In general though, the issues I usually see are pace of delivery, lack of focus, people and bureaucracy.
My advice:
- Break away from digital bureaucracy and focus on accelerating delivery speed. Adopt true agile delivery practice. Adapt to change. Bring ideas to life faster, so that you can test and learn from them quicker.
- Set clear design principles that reflect what Gen Z actually want (values like connection, speed and transparency), and hold yourself accountable to them.
- Use data dashboards to track performance – specifically among younger audiences – and test your products with real users from these cohorts, not just proxies.
- Perhaps most importantly: hire young people! No insight, no research method, no trend report can replace lived experience. If you want to build for Gen Z, bring them into the room.
It’s tough. Gen Z are a slippery fish and competition for eyeballs is fierce. But if you really want to go after this market then digital experience must be a top priority.
And just remember: good digital experience is good for everybody so maybe, by improving things for Gen Z, you’re improving things for everyone else as well.
- Digital Strategy