Website design - Gender preferences
41
Why men and women don't agree about websites: the secrets about men and women's web preferences G Moss and R Gunn Internet World 17 May 2006
Transcript of Website design - Gender preferences
Why men and women don't agree about websites:
the secrets about men and women's web preferences
G Moss and R Gunn
Internet World 17 May 2006
Good news!
Lots of pictures,
so no danger that,
following lunch …
Web design: important gap
E-commerce is in a high growth state:• usage - 934 million in 2004; 1.35 billion in 2007
• 2002 – 2004: 50% increase in Fs shopping online: 17m -> 28m shoppers (Forrester, 2004)
Satisfying the customer
• Business survival depends on shaping
products and services around the
“unique and particular needs” of the
customer (Hammer, Reengineering the
Corporation, 1995)
Satisfying the customer: Gender
• Many markets segmented -> male and female markets
• Female: grocery, furniture, books, small electrical,
OTC medicines, domestic property, cars ……
• Male: SLR cameras, computers, petrol ……
Satisfying the customer: Gender
• $ 64k question
• Do men and women like the same kinds of design?
Web design (Moss Gunn)
Compared M and F-produced web sites.Rated sites across 2 main measures (23 variables):
• Visual• Language • 30M and 30F in UK • 90M and 90F websites • UK, France and Poland
Results UK / France / Poland
p < 0.001 Male / females in images
p < 0.001 Inanimate / animate
p < 0.05 Regular / irreg typeface
p < 0.001 Colours in typeface
p < 0.001 Conventional layout
p < 0.05 Predominant colours
p < 0.001 Lines / round
p < 0.001 Pictures 2D or 3D
p < 0.001 Tone of words
p < 0.001 Expert language
p < 0.05 Own achievements
p < 0.001 Denigration
p < 0.001 Site map
n/aMixtureRoundStraight
30
20
10
0
GENDER
Male
Female
A comparison of the male and female tendency to use straight lines: UK
>74-6 Colours2-3 Colours1 Colour
30
20
10
0
GENDER
Male
Female
A comparison of the male and female tendency to use large numbers of typeface colours: UK
noneBothInformalFormal0
30
20
10
0
GENDER
Male
Female
A comparison of the male and female use of informal / formal language or a combination of both: UK
Male website example: 1
Male website: example 2
Female website example: 1
Female website example: 2
Web preferences
67 respondents (38M + 26F):
• Men prefer male-produced websites
• Women prefer female-produced websites
Causes of differences
Evolution of visual skills in response to division of
labour from 1.7m – 10,000 BC (from lower palaeolithic to
end of Pleistocene epoch).
Implications
• Books• Groceries• Higher Education• Beauty
Books
• Sector with second largest number of e-commerce shoppers in US (Nielsen Media Research Study, 1999)
• M / F near parity US (Nielsen 1999) 55% of online consumers = F;
UK 56% of paperbacks bought by F (Mintel)
Amazon
Merlin
Groceries
• Online parity between men and women shoppers (Research and markets, 2002)
• Tesco – market leader in UK with 27% of the market, 10% above its nearest rival (TNS, Feb 2004)
• www.tesco.co.uk
Tesco
Asda
Toys
Universities
• Competitive market • M/ F near parity (Fs= 53% of f’t u/gs and 66%
of p/t )• Analysis of 32 HEI websites: 30 with overall
masculine orientation
University web designers
73
19
7
74
University websites (%)
Interview response rate (%)
M + F
F
M
Gender of person(s) designing the University websites
Beauty
Beauty• Predominantly female market• Men are half as likely as women to have
health and beauty treatment
Beauty
Beauty
Beauty
73
4
18
78
Beauty salon websites (%)
Interview response rate (%)
M + F
F
M
Gender of person(s) designing the company’s website
IT professionals
2971 IT operations, technicians
1783 ICT Managers
1684Software professionals
% Females % Males
Occupation
Conclusions (1)
• Differences in M / F production aesthetics
• Differences in M / F preference aesthetics
Conclusions (2)
• Massive implications for e-marketing to M and F
• Implications for recruitment of IT professionals
Final conclusions
• Need to spread the word, even if it shatters cherished conceptions about optimal design....
Media coverage
• 80 US newspapers (Wall St journal; NY Times; Washington Post)
• BBC, Times Higher Education, Western Mail, Director Magazine, E-Consultancy, New Media Age
• 20 weblogs
Research and consultancy
• Bunnyfoot
• Directski
• Bounty
Bounty
