According to researchers in Wales, men and women look for distinctly different aesthetics and functionality in a website, something they say designers should pay close attention to if they want to target specific genders with greater effectiveness.
Gloria Moss, along with colleagues Krzysztof Kubacki and Rod Gunn at the University of Glamorgan, studied 60 websites, 50 percent of which were designed by women, the other half by men.
“We looked at factors such as language, visuals, and navigation – the differences were immediately apparent," Moss said.
Not surprisingly, subjects who participated in the study tended to rate web design by someone of the same gender higher than they did sites designed by the opposite sex.
“There is no doubt about the strength of men and women's preference for sites produced by people of their own sex,” Gun said.
By studying the reasons behind the ratings, however, the researchers said some very specific design information was discovered. Moss and her team came to the conclusion that most websites focus almost entirely on men in the way they approach the user experience, noting that the majority of sites, 74 percent in one random sample, were produced by a man or predominantly male team, while just 7 percent were designed by a female or female team.
According to the study, women tend to focus on nature and “living themes” on their sites, prefer more informal language, have fewer links and tend to favor pictures of women. Men, on the other hand, are drawn to fewer colors and more formal language, and show a strong affinity for straight lines and moving pictures. Men also tend to promote themselves on sites, while women are more self-denigrating.
“If website flow is to be maximized, greater attention needs to be given to the production aesthetic used and the consequent appeal websites will have to their target markets,” said 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.”
Markus Greely, a web designer with San Francisco-based Design Proffesionals, wasn’t surprised by the study. He said he is often asked to design separate entrance points for websites, one specifically for men, the other for women.
“We’ve actually set up links on a homepage that say ‘Men Enter Here’ and ‘Women Enter Here,’ Greely told XBiz. “That’s a little extreme, but it certainly ensures your design schemes capture both markets.”
