Sex and Web Design

August 24, 2005 —

Ebusinesses may need to start thinking more about the sex of both their audience and site designers. Researchers have found that "men and women really are poles apart when it comes to what catches their eye on the internet."

The idea that companies should consider gender in making design decisions may be controversial, but ignoring gender preferences may be even more risky.

Sugar and Spice vs. Puppy Dog Tails

Designing sites differently for men and women may strike some as sexist or old-fashioned. Choosing designs or designers based on gender raises even more issues. Nevertheless, gender differences play a large role in the way men and women design and view websites.

Researchers at the UK's University of Glamorgan have identified many differences in the website design preferences of men and women.

Men prefer:

* Straight lines and shapes

* Simpler and darker color schemes

* Formal or expert language with few abbreviations

* Images featuring motion

Women prefer:

* Rounded forms

* Brighter and more complex color schemes

* Casual language and tone

* Informal photographs

"We looked at factors such as language, visuals, and navigation - the differences were immediately apparent," explains researcher Gloria Moss. "We compared the sites on 23 factors and differences emerged on just over half of these. This is a massive number".

The "Know thy User" Gap

One of the mantras of website usability is "Know thy user". The website gender research points out that web developers make design decisions, to some degree, based on their gender. This can result in less than optimal design.

When the researchers compared the reactions of both sexes to sites designed by men and women, they found that women preferred sites designed by women and men preferred sites designed by men in almost every case.

"There is no doubt about the strength of men and women's preference for sites produced by people of their own sex," said statistician and co-researcher Dr Rod Gunn.

Because many sites are designed by primarily male teams, they tend to have what the researchers call a "masculine orientation". In fact, the study found that most sites (74%) were produced by a man or predominantly male teams, compared to just 7% designed by a female or female team.

"Organizations are not considering how they can tailor their websites to appeal to their entire target audience," notes Moss. "Given the strong tendency for each sex to prefer the output of its own sex, it does not make sense to attempt to appeal to women using an aesthetic which is largely male."

The researchers found that sites are being designed primarily by men, regardless of the target audience. 77% of angling websites are designed by men, while 78% of female-oriented beauty websites are designed by men.

"The absence of a female web aesthetic in the beauty websites would make these sites less optimally effective than they could be," explains Moss. "It is no longer satisfactory to assume that an 'effective website' is perceived in the same way by all visitors."

Coming to Terms with Gender Differences

Most websites are designed by predominantly male teams. This may be a liability for companies marketing to a diverse audience, and even more of a problem for sites that target women.

Acting on gender-based website preferences raises many issues. Superficial attempts to make sites more "feminine" could be more offensive than a male bias. Choosing designers based on gender is equally problematic.

There are several things ebusinesses can do, though, to minimize gender gaps:

* Understand the gender makeup of your site's audience;

* Be aware of gender differences in user preferences;

* Recognize the competitive benefits to exploring diverse design options; and

* Test design options with users that reflect your site's visitors.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Key Website Research Highlights Gender Bias

ITworld.com, Ecommerce in Action