Target Audience research
I wanted to do some specific research regarding my target audience for my travel app and who I am aiming my travel app towards.
Who is my target audience?
My target audience is anyone that wants to take a gap year and that could range from late teens to a young adults.
Why did I chose this target audience?
This target audience makes sense as the app is about gap year travel, and from previous research I have discovered that the ages for students/ people who take a gap year range from 18-24.
Young people & Apps
I wanted to do some research regarding young people and what they want and prefer in mobile apps in todays society, I thought that this would help me to design a relevant and trendy app.
What do young people want to see in an app?
A company called Mindsea conducted a research based on google surveys, to truly understand what young people want their apps to look like and how they prefer them to work. I read this infographic designed by Mindsea see below, and it is based on what young people favour, link here.
From the infographics above I can tell that millennials have high expectation for app designs and how well they function, in todays society. The top 3 biggest influences on young people when it comes to apps and what they want their apps to have are the following:
- Unique feutres & Functionality
- Recommendations from friends
- Good design
What do they want?
According to Reach Right Studios younger people prefer apps that offer the following content:
- Messaging– Teens prefer mobile apps that make it easy for them to communicate with others.
- Socialising– Social features are an important aspect to apps for young people, as they enjoy catching up with friends and they like to see where their friends are and what they are doing.
- Expressing thoughts– Teens and young adults enjoy apps that allow them to express themselves, apps can give them the freedom to instantly inform their friends of how they feel about certain topics. This can result in them being able to connect with people who feel the same as they do.
- Images– Young people are very visual and they enjoy content that has a lot of visuals such as images and videos. This age group specifically enjoy taking images, posting them and sharing images including their own as well as their friends visual content.
Young people and travel
I have discovered through my research that many young people rely heavily on apps to plan and book their trips, they can book everything online from flights to activities. This makes everything easy and accessible to them and can allow for a wider range of activities to be discovered and booked.
In her article in Conde Nast Traveler , Shallcross explains why travelling young is an advantage:
“Having grown up in the digital age, they’re free of the hang-ups that hindered past generations of travellers. They don’t think twice about booking a flight online or spending the night in a stranger’s apartment—and with that comes the freedom of choice.”
Common travel apps used by young people:
- Tripadviser
- Skyscanner
- Couchsurfing
- Hostelworld
- Airbnb
The sheer accessibility of these apps can allow young people to access cheaper deals for flights and accommodation, and it also allows them to stay connected to other younger travellers and interact with them.
What Are Young Travelers Up To?
I have read an article entitled and What Are Young Travelers Up To? and it has provided me with a lot of great insight into what Millenials and Gen Z want and desire from their travelling experience and what makes their trips better.
Technology Statistics
The help that young people can get from websites and apps has grown significantly over the years, the relevance of social media and has grown greatly from 2012. This includes apps like Airbnb which is one of the top travel apps used worldwide and 56% of young people used this application on their last trip. Young people are the most likely group of people to book their trips e.g. hotels and flights online or from their phone, with 85% of them doing just that.
These are their top destinations
- USA
- Thailand
- Australia
- Eurpoean countries e.g. Spain
They key to their happiness when travelling
From research I have came across that there are three main factors that contribute to a young persons happiness when it comes to travelling and they are:
- Destination
- Trip length
- Activities
I found this information in particular helpful as I can consider adding elements of the list above into my app. It was discovered that young people who stay in a country or destination for a longer period of time are happier/ have a happier and an overall better tip, I thought this was actually a very interesting fact.
What did I learn?
I enjoyed researching deeper into my target audience for my own travel app, this has given me relevant information about what people my age expect form travel apps and what they prefer them to have. I now know the types of features I should consider including in my app and feautures that perhaps I don’t need. I have learned that young people’s top wants are unique features and a high level of functionality and I will keep that in mind when designing my travel app.