Here on dKos we've had discussions regarding the presence (or lack thereof) of women on the 'net and in the blogosphere. There was even some slight discussion of this phenomenon when Kos changed the appearance of this webpage. Now the British may have come up with an explaination.
Why, some have asked, aren't there more women using the web? Some, like Mr. Summers last year, think that women just don't have the aptitude. Others say that women are too busy working, parenting, etc to have the time. You may be surprised (or maybe not) to find out that the
appearance of a web page can dictate the gender of it's majority users.
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.
And what exactly drew men to male-constructed websites and women to female-designed sites?
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.
This brings us to a point that was brought up later in the article about whether sites should have gender specific entry points. Could there someday be a "Ladies dKos" and a "Gentlemans dKos"? I certainly hope not, but marketing being marketing, I can certainly see a time when the pressure for advertising dollars could push some other sites to test those waters.
But what really bothers me is that I, a woman, still like this site, despite all the straight lines and bold colors. What's that say about me?