August 9th, 2005

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Web Design
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Gender Bias in Web Design

The folks at the University of Glamorgan has released a study that examines gender-bias in web design (via Rick Bruner):

Where visuals are concerned, males favour the use of straight lines (as opposed to rounded forms), few colours in the typeface and background, and formal typography. As for language, they favour the use of formal or expert language with few abbreviations and are more likely to promote themselves and their abilities heavily.

No kidding. The sample group was absurdly small and narrow–”personal websites created by 60 university students, 30 male and 30 female”. Hopefully this impels further study on the subject. Michael Martine has some interesting comments on the study.

On the other hand, I’m sure the 20th century has a wealth of studies that evaluate the efficacy of print design between the genders. Interactivity aside, I’m pretty sure they’d say the same thing with regards to rounded corners and typefaces.

I obviously shouldn’t be knocking any body’s grammar, but there were two curious uses in this press release.

  • “…men and women really are poles apart when it comes to…” - This is curious only because it’s a British phrase we almost never hear in North America. It is also the name of a Pink Floyd song.
  • “…was then shown to a group of individuals of both sexes…” - Doesn’t this imply that they showed the websites to a group of hermaphrodites?

In case you, like me, were wondering where the heck the University of Glamorgan is, it’s here.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Jim Turner
August 9th, 2005
6:27 pm

I was very curious about that myself when I linked the piece. I was just sure this was the scholastic equivalent to MIT. I guess not.

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Jay Currie
August 9th, 2005
8:20 pm

I am not sure I would conclude much from a sixty person sample.

One of the things I am struck by surfing around are the number of women with minimalist sleek designs which are all about straight lines. But maybe that is just the sorts of women I find interesting. Confounding variables are a drag.

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Cheryl
August 9th, 2005
9:57 pm

I have always preferred straight lines and clear type to flowery cluttered backgrounds and curly-cue fonts. Last time I checked, I’m a girl.

I think more interesting would be a larger study of experience (ie: years designing web pages) versus inexperience; or just plain age spread instead of gender. I really don’t think a large study would show any clear differentiation by gender.

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Molly E. Holzschlag
August 9th, 2005
10:12 pm

Certainly there are always exceptions to rules, but the Glamorgan study is actually in step with long-known gender issues in design.

I have more thoughts about this in my article Girls Prefer Circles: Gender Bias and Web Design Esthetics.

Fascinating subject.

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Michael Martine
August 11th, 2005
7:59 pm

The sample group certainly is small, but I think the study raises valid issues and a larger group probably wouldn’t provide much of a change in the results (my unscientific opinion!).

In the catalyst group study, their sample group was small, too: only 9 participants! Nevertheless, the results were highly informative concerning the naming of blog design objects and blog navigation.

The information there prompted me to improve the usability of my blog for those new to blogs. I feel these changes have been very successful, and have inspired others to think about these issues.

BTW, Darren, nice blog!

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