Have you ever pondered over the distribution of web space according the gender character? Under the latest marketing studies, online activity has changed its gender breakdown terrifically. Now the number of female users grows from day to day, which proves that their preferences can’t be ignored.

According to statistics, women are more active social site users and online buyers compared to their counterparts. Just throw a quick glance at the graphic diagrams below vividly demonstrating the assignment of social and purchasing activity for both genders:

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Online business sharks are not going to miss the opportunity to expand the borders of their product market, maybe that’s the reason why women oriented websites appear on regular bases. Their success and popularity depends on how deep the designer knows what the targeted audience actually wants. Frankly speaking, it’s not an easy question as a web developer should consider all aspects, i.e.: age, social status, profession, psychology, cultural peculiarities and so on. Unfortunately, even the above mentioned points can’t guarantee that you will hit the bull’s eye, as female nature is very changeable. Ladies of similar age and occupation might be attracted by absolutely opposite things, for instance one can be a glamorous babe, while the other – a bluestocking.

However, we don’t believe in dead ends and will surely work out several guidelines of female oriented design in the end of the entry. So far, let the thesis that pink is more a stereotype than a synonym of femininity become our starting point.

It’s rather distressing, but the majority of contemporary women suffer from permanent lack of time, as they bear numerous responsibilities: job, housekeeping, kids and husband. So, they won’t overburden themselves trying to penetrate into sophisticated designer’s idea. Here simplicity and functionality come to the foreground. Fair sex won’t spend time reading long specifications and technical features of some miraculous appliance; they’d rather get to know how it can save money, efforts and time, that is, how the product can change her life for better. Quite reasonable, isn’t it?

When women purchase various items for children, husband, grandparents, friends, pets, this principle will work well also. Tell the woman how enjoyable the item will be for her family and friends, and she will buy it. The characteristic trait of a woman is that she is oblivious to the blameless reputation of a merchant. If your website is not welcoming and user friendly enough, she will leave it and share her negative experience with others. Normally, female nature is more delicate, so too aggressive design, color scheme and products promotion will hardly stir the desire to browse further. A female user is like a gourmet in the restaurant, she is ready for experiments but they should be esthetically attractive.

At this stage we can arrive at the conclusion that rich useful content, pleasant trustworthy atmosphere and visual appeal are likely to make a woman pop into your website.

It’s an interesting observation that websites themselves tend to certain gender. There is a simple explanation to the phenomenon – some of them were developed by women designers. You can guess what gender is your website analyzing the following points (pursuant to the statistics):

• rounded elements;
• vertical layouts;
• personalized typography;
• prevailing white, yellow, pink and mauve colors;
• female images are characterizing for female websites.

You can get a clear notion of women’s favorite colors from these expressive color charts:

To summarize everything said above, let’s formulate some main principles of web design able to draw female customers.

• Enough white space as fair pastel background is relaxing for the eye and doesn’t distract from the essential content.
• Quality imagery. Professional high-resolution photos add beauty to the design.
• Easy intuitive navigation quickly leading to the desired product. Contrasting call-to-action buttons also shouldn’t be neglected.
• Clean and clear design elements create the illusion of purity, freshness and professionalism. Transparency effect helps to add tenderness to the layout.
• Reserved palette. It’s better to use not more than three colors in order not to confuse the user with extra diversity.
• Harmonious element placement. Once entering the website a user should know where to look first, the eyes shouldn’t scamper about.

Of course the issue how to design for women still stays open and not so deeply studied, but we hope you will get something useful from the post and maybe even continue the research.

Please feel free to view all creative examples illustrating the best practices of women oriented design.

Genny

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Hattie Newman

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Putzengel

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Sobe

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We Love Wool

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Camper

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Spoon

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Kelly Shaw

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Spa & Beauty

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Soap

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Impression

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Perfume

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Luxury Linen

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Fragrance

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In a nutshell, our investigation affirmed us at the estimation that fair sex continues to strengthen its positions not only in business, political scientific and economical spheres, but also plays an important part in the development of virtual space. Apart from professional activity due to historical inside women keep the house and control family budget. Therefore, their tastes and preferences should be taken into account during web design creation, as the investment will definitely turn out to be lucrative.

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Written by Helga M.

Being a teacher of English language and literature, all my life I tried to avoid tuition in any form, but finally the artful fate in the face of my teen son has caught me up. Now I am struggling to cope with writing posts and educating my son, husband and cat, though the latter is the most intractable. My restless mind is enthralled with the obsession to peep into the deepest holes of the universe and write an illustrated bestseller about my crazy experience. Helga Moreno on Google+.

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