[thelist] Do women view web pages differently from men?

narrator narrator at idiom.com
Thu Apr 5 13:51:15 CDT 2001


On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, George Dillon wrote:

> I found it so
> fascinating that both of the two guineau pigs testing my new creation seemed
> utterly unable to 'see' any text links and always went for graphics, and
> that I put this down to them both having a fair amount of browsing
> experience and were therefore more attuned to speedily scanning a screen for
> the items they were after, and she (having a masters in Women's Studies)
> commented that it was because they were both MEN and that women would be
> more likely to read what was in front of them... and I thought... could this
> be true...

Hey George, 
I know I've read several studies about the differences between men and
women's browsing habits, one thing sticking out is women tend to scan 
the text more than men, who tend to scan graphics first. The only
things I can find quickly is this:

Why Looksmart's User Interface Grabs More Women Users
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,548,00.html

What Women Rely on the Net For
http://www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,9999,00.html

There is an IDC study on "Women's Usage Habits" but it's for pay, and I
seem to remember Forrester having a study on this as well...

hth,
Kyra





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