Web site's appearance matters - study of men vs women Options

[AbleReach]

Study: Web site's appearance matters
CNN, Thursday, August 11, 2005; Posted: 11:22 a.m. EDT (15:22 GMT)

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.

Conclusion - mix it up with elements that attract both.

Elizabeth

[Renee]

Did a test of this theory awhile back, but in print (same applies, also women tend to favor rounder, organic shapes). My sister is a massage therapist and reflexologist (so much better to have this profession in the family than a doctor or lawyer! ) and needed cards that matched the feel of the salon she was renting space from.

Before we had final cards printed, I asked her if she would be willing to do a marketing test for me and printed out about 100 of each card from a laser printer on glossy photo stock. The dominant color had to be pink, not a favorite of men. Her clients were predominantly women, but she had at least 1/3 male clients. I designed two cards, one with a rounded shape, one that was a traditional boxy design.

She offered each client their choice of card. No contest. Men chose the geometric, women chose the one with a rounded shape in it, almost 100% both groups.

[travis]

Interestng Stuff.

Thanks Elizabeth for that.

Some of our clients have a pre-existing skewness in the population distribution of male and female customers.

So we do plan for this in the initial design, but when both are represented in equal numbers, we have not thought really long and hard about it.

[randfish]

Is this why so many men like bony, shapeless women nowadays?

[AbleReach]

Is this why so many men like bony, shapeless women nowadays?

Could it be that those square shoulder pads were a girl's best friend?

/OT

[send2paul]

Hmmmm - interesting topic Elizabeth. I had just got into a thread in another forum which was slightly in this direction. A young lady had put two adverts in a classified ad, (offline), about wanting help with her website/web design. In one ad she never mentioned she was female, 18 years old and inexperineced in web design etc, and in the next ad she did mention all that. The second ad got all the replies. She was wondering about how this could be used online. I suggested...

Try this - create male and female internet personas on a trial site, (not your main business website incase this is a complete disaster as an experiment). Get them to interact with each other on page, as if they are trying to \"out do\" each other all the time - but at the same time you are solidly getting your message across about your business. (Perhaps use small balloon type pictures of them talking to each from either side of a page - with the main business point they are demonstrating in the middle?)

Then you could safely market the website from a male and female perspective both online and offline - and you could measure the reponse.

It may provide some very useful data.

Has anyone seen, or tried that before, or know the results of such an experiment?

[AbleReach]

Hey, this is the fascinating stuff of focus groups and personas.

I think that offering masculine and feminine branding for the same brand could confuse viewers. I could see a masculine or feminine touch for different departments.

Tam's redesign is an interesting look at natural development of ideas that combine "masculine" and "feminine" looks.

This is shaping up to be an interesting thread. :-)

Elizabeth

[Renee]

Fragrance companies duo brand particular scents for quite some time now. Of course, the scents are different, but they're selling a "lifestyle image" with some scent lines, and need to appeal to both women and men.

Some have the literally the same bottles and packaging, using "for him" and "for her" or "feminine" and "masculine", etc. Some use the same bottle, but have a different color perfume, usually a stronger color for the mens version. Or, for example, in the Dolce y Gabbana "By" line packaging, a zebra print for the men, leopard for the women.

[travis]

send2paul,

If you have ever played war games online, depending on the game, the proportion of testosterone packed males is usually fairly high ( like 99.9% ). Games like BFV, BF1942, Dungeon Siege and Call of Duty are where I have seen the effect you are talking about.

Once a character pops up on the screen with a female name, things do change. People start asking questions. Assuming the character with the female name turns out to be actually female, the dynamic nature of the game changes considerably.

Some people become protective of that character. Some people cant stop talking to that character. Some people target that character. The female character, and this sounds weird, may only choose to hang around with the best player to help them to get around the game easier.

So for example, if you are Japanese and fighting the Americans in GuadalCanal in 1942, the players can fly together in the two seater plane, drive together in the jeep, and travel together in the same tank.

I can certainly relate to your example, as I have seen this effect first hand.

The idea and mystery of the male/female thing on the internet is more exciting than the reality of it.

[AbleReach]

The research -- which was repeated in France and Poland to rule out British cultural bias -- is being published in European journals on consumer behavior and marketing.

It'll be interesting to see if preferences are different for Asia.

Elizabeth

[nuts]

Is this why so many men like bony, shapeless women nowadays?

I always thought the reason fashion models are so skinny was that (male) clothing designers tend to be gay.

Has anyone tested the website/print graphic choice theory for sexual preference?

[Renee]

As offline businesses have done for decades, the web will go through growing pains as more sites must increasingly appeal to women. The findings are pretty much what print designers knew years ago, so I'm surprised that no reference was made to that.

His and her sites, unisex sites? It's not only the visuals, but the language and how information is presented. Maybe a subsite, where a landing page is created, but subtle visual variations to the main site theme are made to favor male or female readership. The writing shifts in tone to address a certain gender. Links to other pages naturally keep a person in this subsection, yet they have access to the rest of the site, if so inclined.

Business environments changed when women flooded the workforce. Both genders had to adapt and compromise, and it's no different on the web. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

[AbleReach]

I always thought the reason fashion models are so skinny was that (male) clothing designers tend to be gay.

Huh?

Well, here models hear that fabric hangs better without having to cover surprizes. Same lines apply to male models. If that's it, maybe Westerners are control freaks.

I have a friend who has shot several fashion spreads for Singapore Vogue. He says their models are the West's idea of glamour and exotica incarnate, though also a tad rounder. He's heard them say they don't want to try for more money and fame in someplace like New York because they don't want to lose weight and look sad and sick like American models.

Elizabeth

[ishans]

A very interesting thread . . . this is along the lines of what we are currently testing on our BtoC site for this upcoming holiday shopping season. However, if I could be so bold to comment on the above opinions, I think that the basis of design should be product centered (or content centered for that matter). I think focusing your design around this element would result in effective results from your website rather that catering to a male or female audience. This is not to say one should discount that design approach, especially if the site is specifically catered towards use by that audience alone. But again this dilemma will be best resolved by focusing on the content/product/service being presented by the site.

However, a point mentioned by Renee around packaging rings true . . . " for example, in the Dolce y Gabbana "By" line packaging, a zebra print for the men, leopard for the women", this has been tested by us and certainly has a dramatic impact on brand recognition catering to brand affiliation . . . and lowered returns believe it or not!

Thanx . . . Ishan

[cre8pc]

I always thought the reason fashion models are so skinny was that (male) clothing designers tend to be gay.

That, and stick figures are easier to sketch on paper. :per:

Products and service don't sell themselves, though many of them can get by without gender specific user testing.

Still, I think too many people (designers and site owners) forget the huge variety of people who access web sites. My favorite example is a site I tested that was a product that could be sold to anyone, any age, but they chose to present it to young people who are into video games, violence and intolerance. The site colors were harsh (blood and anger being one of the themes).

This is fine, if they intend on only selling to angry young men, but it was during the holiday season, so I created a user persona who was a parent, whose son asked for a specific brand name of product. If that parent did a search, they may have found that web site. The product line was expensive, the styles trendy, the marketing bold, and sometimes sprinkled with frightening images.

Would that parent be comfortable making a purchase? Perhaps, if it were a man and had no trouble with the testesterone levels of the site, but a woman (ie. mother buying for offspring) would most likely have been repulsed and not placed an order.

It wasn't designed to sell products to mothers, who could afford the products and whose son or daughter wants the product, because "all the other kids have one".

[Renee]

Nike likes big women:
http://www.adrants.com/2005/08/nike-likes-...d-thighsand.php

[cre8pc]

From the Nike piece:

Following Dove's much talked about campaign, Nike has launched a series of print ads that celebrates big butts, thunder thighs and tomboy knees.

This is fantastic! Glad to hear it.

One of my personal pet peeves is the kind of images used on some lingerie sites. It's so obvious they're not targeting female customers, because

1 - the images look like they could compete with adult sites

2 - none of those women even remotely resembles me

This has always just ticked me off :mad:

[Renee]

I agree, it's taken way too long for the fashion industry to get that real women don't relate to anemic models. Or maybe I should say the white fashion industry, as the African and Latino fashion industry has featured "big booty" women for decades.

Neiman Marcus took the lead many years back and included older women (gasp! gray hair showing) in their catalogs.

Yes, the lingerie industry could get a few clues, but plus size (and I hate that phrase) models are increasingly being used. And there are even a few instructional sensual dance DVDs that use real women of all shapes and races.

It's amazing to me that modern culture is only at this stage since the late 60s. Throwing away your bra and using "Ms." was such a big deal then. BTW, those bra-burning demonstrations are a myth.

[cre8pc]

More details on that study...

Key Website Research Highlights Gender Bias

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.

A selection of the University websites was then shown to a group of individuals of both sexes who had to rate their appeal on a scale. In almost every case women preferred those sites designed by women and men showed a preference for those created by men.

\"The statistics are complicated, but 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.

[AbleReach]

I was sorry to see the comments on "female" design go directly to beauty. It's interesting that "78% of the female orientated beauty websites were also drawn up by men," about the same percent as male-designed angling (fishing) sites.

I'd also like to know who is spending their money online, alongside if/how/when women are designing for sites where women spend more money. This might be especially interesting to little businesses. High-powered, highly recognizable brick-and-mortar brands need to keep a core of their offline look, regardless. Online-only newbie ecommerce has have more flexibility for branding changes.

What do you think?

Elizabeth