[Sigia-l] Usability preferences by gender

[Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com]

Adam,

Just want to clarify what you're asking.  It may depend on how you 
define "UI elements" and "usability preferences."

There clearly ARE cultural and physiological differences between the 
genders (known fact).  These differences may or may not impact the 
usability of a given product.

For example:

- As a group, males might find it more difficult to use small buttons on 
a handheld device due to their generally larger hand size.  

- Males are also statistically more likely to be color blind...

- The cultural roles of men and women are different (and these 
differences vary from culture to culture).  Those differences may impact 
the way a given person might react to something conceptually (e.g. a 
menu planning application, an online dating service, or a weight loss 
product).  The way certain content is received might also be impacted by 
gender differences (e.g. pregnancy related content).  See 
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/2S/gender.htm as an 
example of research of this type.  

The ACM portal (aka Digital Library) has a number of research reports 
that discuss gender.  For example "The impact of culture and gender on 
web sites: an empirical study" 
(http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=506744&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=19
520408&CFTOKEN=54468221)  In the summary it states: "Qualitative 
analysis indicates that females within certain cultures have widely 
different preferences from their male counterparts regarding web site 
attributes."

In another report called "Drag-and-drop versus point-and-click mouse 
interaction styles for children" there is a nice summary of previous 
research in the justification section:
"Numerous other researchers have observed that gender differences often 
exist with respect to interactions with computers. For example, girls 
and boys think about computers differently [Hall and Cooper 1991; Wilder 
et al. 1985], have different motivations for using computers [Inkpen et 
al. 1994; Upitis and Koch 1996], and have different preferences and 
usage styles [Lockheed 1985; Inkpen et al. 1994; Lawry et al. 1995].  
Previous research has also shown that software designers incorporate 
their
own gender biases into the software that they develop [Huff and Cooper 
1987]."

Of course, there's nothing like doing your own user research to 
understand *your* users (who may be very different from other women).  
If all else fails, that's a pretty solid approach (in an ideal 
situation).

Regards,

Lyle

----
Lyle Kantrovich
User Experience Architect

Croc O' Lyle - Personal Commentary on usability, information 
architecture and design.
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." 
	- Leonardo da Vinci
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam.Polansky at travelocity.com
[mailto:Adam.Polansky at travelocity.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 9:34 AM
To: Sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Usability preferences by gender


Does anyone know of research that identifies or debunks the notion that 
there are distinct usability preferences and responses to UI elements 
specific to gender?

I'm working on an application that will be used predominantly by 
professional women with a high degree of website usage experience. If I 
can inform UI decisions with these preferences (if they exist), we might 
be able to better influence the adoption of the application.

Adam Polansky
Sr. Information Architect  ::  Customer Experience
Travelocity.com
 v:  682.605.2518
m:  214.868.4157

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