Gender & Cultural Bias in Web Design

The University of Glamorgan has really done it this time. They released a study on gender bias in web design and now everyone's talking about it. (And by everyone I mean simply that I saw at least two posts on it.) What they came up with is very interesting (or it sounds like it anyway... I'm merely reacting to others' reactions to U of G's reaction study). Apparently 94% of sites are designed with a masculine orientation, and a mere 2% are designed with a feminine bias. I was surprised to find that Oprah.com was counted as part of that 94% figure. Strange times! Also I heard a rumor that the four percent of unaccounted-for designs was privately labelled targeted at mindless drones, regardless of gender. Figures that these guys were in that group.

On a related topic, Jeremy Keith wrote about being given a design brief that included the directive that the design not be American in appearance. Which is decidedly odd, given that I was told recently by a client in no uncertain terms that the site design could not be Lithuanian. At which point I stood up and said, It's either Lithuanian or nothing at all! He didn't say anything so I said it again, louder. Then I left.