Web Design for Women.. a good reason! :)

Web Design for Women?? Here's a very good example of one of the reasons I chose to focus on web design for women...

Recent research shows that men and women spend their time on the internet very differently. British researchers suggest it's not just a Web site's subject or function that determines whether it will draw more men or women. The appearance of the site also might play a role.

In a recent study at Glamorgan University Business School in Wales, test subjects rated the personal Web pages of 60 people for usability and aesthetics.

Not surprisingly, male subjects tended to assign higher ratings to pages designed by men, and females preferred sites made by women. But the researchers said they gleaned important tidbits by looking more closely at the ratings.

Women seemed to like pages with more color in the background and typeface. Women also favored informal rather than posed pictures.

Men responded better to dark colors and straight, horizontal lines across a page. They also were more pleased by a three-dimensional look and images of "self-propelling" rather than stationary objects.

The study found that websites which might appeal greatly to one sex can immediately repel the other. In almost every case women preferred those sites designed by women and men showed a preference for those created by men.

They found 94% of the sites displayed a masculine orientation with just 2% displaying a typically female bias.
Further research found that the majority of sites, 74%, were produced by a man or a predominantly male team, while just 7% were designed by a female or female team.

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

Happy weekend!

LuLu

Web design for Women

Why web design for women? I felt there was a great need for women designing websites for women. After all, we are a "different breed" so to speak, and we sometimes have a different way of viewing, visualizing and portraying things. Beautiful designs coming from female perspectives seemed like a valuable service. I will discuss some recent findings regarding how women view design and marketing in my next post.

Have a lovley day...

LuLu