Female Web Designers v. Designing Web for Females

Holly Buchanan over that grokdotcom writes on whether firms should hire more female web designers...

I specialize in marketing to women online. One questions I often get is, "If I'm targeting women, should I get a woman to design my website?"

My answer is always, "Hire the best web designer money can buy." Really good web designers understand and design for their audience. Less skilled designers may default to what they know, or worse, what they like. That's where you enter the danger zone. The further the designer is from your target audience, the harder they'll have to work to put aside their own likes and biases.

I agree with Holly that you should hire good designers regardless of gender... but I think the better question to ask is, "what should I do to alter my design to better speak to women?"  More importantly why should you care?  Well for starters, women-owned businesses continue to grow at an amazing rate. According to the Center for  Women's Business Research, the estimated growth rate in the number of women-owned firms was nearly twice that of all firms (17 percent vs. 9 percent).  Nearly half of all privately held U.S. firms are women-owned. That means 10.6 million firms are at least half owned by women. These firms employ 19.1 million people and generate nearly $2.5 trillion in sales.

A question we are asking ourselves is how much do we need to alter our existing web experience and planned web experiences to better talk to women executives and entrepreneurs?  I can tell you that we all have biases based on our own experiences. Who we are places filters on our perceptions that no amount of "outside-in" thinking will cure

One of the most important insights from the University of Glamorgam study is that each of the sexes preferred websites designed by their own sex.   (Check out the discussion at molly.com for a great debate on the subject.)

So I can't answer the question, what we will do to alter our experience to better speak to women in high tech ... I have no friggin clue if the color palate will change or if the tonality of our content will be altered but I can tell you that we are using a relatively gender balanced team to get there.

Comments

[Stephanie Beack]

1.

I've been thinking about this one a lot and will share some ideas soon. Did you see Kathy Siera's post a while ago "Code Like a Girl"? http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/03/code_like_a_gir.html
Bought the t-shirts for my team before I left.

I also have a copy of Machine Beauty sitting at "my" desk which I intend to read soon.

My approach isn't necessarily so much male v. female but certain types of thinking and visualization which often fall into place within each gender camp..

[Steve]

2.

Definitely agree Steph...designing for gender is as much about who is doing the design as what is being designed.