Gender
Influence on Web Site Design
If you're
run a small business you will almost certainly have faced the question
of whether or not your business needs to have a presence on the Web.
You will have thought about it yourself and you will also be swamped
with offers to produce a web site for your business that will bring
you riches beyond your wildest dreams.
There
are some interesting points to consider and I should tell you that
a web site is not always a great idea for a small business. In fact
it can cost a lot of money and produce nothing in return.
That's
something worth looking at in the future but what if you have already
taken the plunge and you do have a website up there promoting your
business? Does that site appeal to your target audience?
I have
to admit that it's not a question that has ever crossed my mind before.
In one of my other entries I mentioned that website design was not
a big part of our business and that is true. We don't do a lot of
website design for clients but between us Toni and I have hundreds
of small marketing sites out there on the web so we are always interested
in any research that looks at the impact of website design.
So it's
no wonder that a recent study by the Glamorgan University Business
School got us thinking. One of the major points of the study was the
fact that it really highlights the need to know your target audience
because gender can be important when designing a website.
For example,
men tended to assign more importance to pages that were designed by
men and females preferred web pages designed by women.
The actual
design of a website is important too. Women preferred sites that had
more colour in the background and typeface while men responded better
to dark colours and a clear regimented design.
After
reading that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out which
one of us built this site.
