An interesting survey was done at a University in Wales recently:
Web site’s appearance matters (from CNN news)
In a recent study at Glamorgan University Business School in Wales, test subjects rated the personal Web pages of 60 people for usability and aesthetics.
Not surprisingly, male subjects tended to assign higher ratings to pages designed by men, and females preferred sites made by women. But the researchers said they gleaned important tidbits by looking more closely at the ratings.
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.
While these findings seem to make sense, it is important to note that this is only a survey and not a definitive study. One can say that the things mentioned above might be the case universally, but that is not necessarily so. A larger scale investigation is necessary to say that, in all cases, women prefer more color and a three-dimensional look, etc.
What I do think this survey bolsters is that it is necessary to know your target demographic, and design for it.
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