illiniguy 11:57 am on August 8, 2005

Research breakthrough

Cripes, can we frickin’ use research money for bigger issues? Instead we have yet another ground-breaking study which pointed out the apparent gender bias of users related to website design, what each sex likes and doesn’t like asthetically when they view a certain website. That’s it’s not all about the substance, but the style of a site..

Well, well, females liked more color and fonts, males liked straightforward designs, and the person who builds a site, their gender influenced the look and feel of their site…yawn….I need that research job. Tomorrow, we’ll evaluate which sex is for or against the vase cupholder in the Beetle…

Just give the damn money to another company doing worthwhile work, like fighting famine, or finding a cure for diseases…

the wife 10:36 am on August 11, 2005

To understand design and who responds to what is research money well spent. If a website is content driven, but pays no attention to the design (color palette, fonts, etc.) it is limiting its readership.

Ultimately, the content is most important, however, something needs to grab attention to captivate the audience long enough to sell the message.

Accomplishing such tasks as curing disease or fighting famine would also benefit from this kind of information. In order to conquer these problems, it takes money. How do you get money? You have to communicate a message to people with money. Knowing what to make your content “look like” to attract these people to your message is invaluable.
illiniguy 12:21 pm on August 11, 2005

But my point is did this study have to happen? Spend the research money on something worthwhile; the fact that a press release was made about it means it was more than just a master’s project, where graduate students were solely learning; it was apparently done for a purpose and used more funds than a normal course of study.

Just because we’re talking a different medium, doesn’t make me think it’d be any different than the gender differences related to newspaper or commercial advertising. Tastes are tastes…

A simplistic view, and this study is getting blasted by me because of the other ones that are even worse, but when we spend so much money on finding out things we should already know or have…like the next ‘little blue pill’…I just get sick of having the view that we spend money to make more money, as opposed to do good; how we don’t spend enough money to find a cure for cancer, for example…which ironically would save money from all the medical expenses down the road, etc., but immediate return on investment is not there, so unless it’s a ‘surer’ bet, no dice…
The Wife 1:48 pm on August 11, 2005

But this isn’t about spending money to make more money. The knowledge gained from a study like this can be applied to any situation where an entity (for profit or nonprofit) has to communicate something to someone. It goes beyond gender preferences for color. I think you’re also making a huge generalization in assuming that everyone knows what colors girls and boys like. Sure, the quick answer is blue and pink…but what about colors that should be used in a grant proposal that would be sent to foundations that would consider putting up large sums of money to research cancer cures? Blue and pink ain’t gonna cut it. But having the understanding that a person should consider such things when composing such a proposal is good information.

Press for a study like this is important to me as well because it reminds people that design serves a purpose which leads to increased credibility which leads to jobs to pay the bills. No matter what you are talking about whether it’s curing cancer or selling a car, it’s ALWAYS about money.

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Research breakthrough

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