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What is Gender HCI and what does it have to do with user interface design? Gender HCI is a subcategory of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). HCI concerns itself with the design and evaluation of interactive systems for human beings, such as user interface design, and Gender HCI focuses on the differences in how males and females relate to these interactive systems and their respective user interface designs. Gender HCI examines ways in which software (or even hardware) features can interact with gender differences. This requires Gender HCI (like regular HCI) to be a highly interdisciplinary field because it requires that designers and researchers from various fields collaborate to understand the ways in which males and females problem solve, communicate, and process information differently. Thus, researchers and designers must explore areas such as psychology, computer science, marketing, neuroscience, education, economics and others to ascertain the information needed to research requirements and design successful user interfaces with potential Gender specifics in mind. Gender HCI is a relatively new field and thus still in the formative stages of becoming a fully fledged category of HCI. Gender HCI was first coined in 2004 by Oregon State University PhD candidate Laura Beckwith (along with the assistance of her advisor Margaret Burnett) and since its clarification as a viable category of HCI, research and interest in the field has exploded and many computer scientists and designers are occupying themselves with system models based on gender differences. Topics explored in Gender HCI: Why is it important for user interface design? The following is a list of topics which designers and computer scientists explore relative to how men and women react differently when interacting with computers: - Confidence as related to problem solving tasks on a given interface design
- General attitudes towards interface designs, web apps, and how and why to use them
- Willingness to try out new and different features on a extant and familiar interface design
- Performance of tasks on large vs. small user interface displays
- Graphic design reactions.
These are just a few topics that are being explored through the lens of Gender HCI, seeking to understand the different attitudes and reactions of males and females towards interface design parameters. While many of these issues can be analyzed through other usability methods, it is interesting to note gender differences because many user interfaces have users comprised mainly of one sex or the other. For example, designers of a wedding dress retailer would benefit from understanding the patterns of use that women employ when using interface designs. There are many gender targeting or gender specific websites that can benefit from understanding how the sexes view and use interfaces differently. In addition, context-aware or context-sensitive systems have long been a hot topic, since they allow to adapt systems to the specific context of their users, such as location, usage behavior, time, or even gender and mood. Understanding how men and women differ in their requirements and usage would allow better targeting to their needs and hence potentially improve the gender-specific usability of an interface design. Controversies surrounding Gender HCI Gender HCI is a field that does not exist without controversy. Many people find Gender HCI to be a method of reinforcing stereotypes and categorizing users based on gross generalizations. There are also many people that maintain that gender differences are a product of socialization, that they are not inherent. Thus, there is a large population of people that find Gender HCI to be offensive and perhaps even a pseudo science. Still, controversy does not automatically make this usability method invalid—if anything it may makes Gender HCI more well-known, as controversy is often one of the best marketing tools around and a surefire way to capture the interest of a broader audience, in this case the broader audience of computer scientists, web designers and interface designers. ==================== About the Author: ==================== Pidoco.com – Interface Design, Interface Design Tool, Wireframe Software, Wireframe Tools, Interface Prototyping, Clickable Wireframes, Usability Testing and Digital Paper Prototyping. User centered design for improved user interface design.
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