Strong Enough for Man But Made for A Woman!

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter

This old Secret deodorant ad slogan popped into my head when a client said, "We want a man-friendly web site. We're not designing it for women."  Hmmm...So, here's my response:

Being "man friendly" doesn't mean being "woman UNfriendly."   Certainly, men and women think differently, but it's not like women are some alien race with unfathomable ways (Want to know what we do in the public restrooms all that time?  Ask. We'll tell you. It has a lot to do with design of both plumbing and anatomy.)

Male and Female Site Visitors Have Many of The Same Needs: 

1.  We all want to know why we should buy, not just what and how. And, the text doesn't have to be all warm and fuzzy or chick lit.  You can be engaging without alienating either sex. 

2.  We don't want to figure out mystery navigation. Your navigation button for About Us should be titled - ta da! -  "About Us" - not be represented by some ancient ethnic symbol for tribe or a "cool" graphic element meant to depict multiple heads and hands.  And, please don't make the little buttons jump up and down, fade in and out, twirl, or flash.  If people have to chase the thing, they're not going to click on it. much less stay on the site.

3. We shouldn't have to work at buying from you. Make it as simple for us to buy as possible - two clicks max to get to the shopping section.

4. We have to be able to read the text.   Don't sacrifice readability for creativity.  What (might) work in a print ad doesn't translate well to the Web. (I've got time, and multiple opportunities to grok the upside down, broken typeface graffiti art in a magazine laying on my coffee table...I don't want to do it on the Web. I'm there once, tell me what I need to know.)   

The site doesn't have to be "cute" or pink or round to be effective with women. We'll happily spend time on a site with square boxes and manly man elements - if the site give us the info we're looking for and does it quickly.  (See point #1 about being engaging.)

Example:  I like this site, Clean Air Gardening, found when I googled garden tools.  Clean-looking design, easy to read boxes, and plenty of choices of where to go (quickly.)   Seems like this wouldn't alienate a guy, would it? 

I'll also happily roam around the Popular Mechanics and Scientific-American web sites - two "non-girly" sites. 

...and then there's Amazon.  Their entire site is about making it easier for people to buy anything and everything.

 

Comments

[Trisha]

I always hated, really hated - that phrase: 'Strong Enough for Man But Made for A Woman!'! What were they thinking? I'm surprised more people didn't make an issue of it.

[Lars @ Clean Air Gardening]

Thanks for the mention, and the compliment on our design.

I agree with your opinion -- if you make something unfriendly to one sex or the other, you're alienating half of your potential customers.

Lawns are often considered a "man" thing and gardens are often considered a "woman" thing, but we see both sexes buying both types of products all the time.