I was reading an article the other week that gave advice on designing websites for women. It claimed that a pink, pretty site with lots of images and obvious calls to actions were what was required to keep women amused online. I found the article quite condescending, I’m female and have never been into anything girlie and pink and kind of resent the stereotype (and hate even more that it was written by a woman).

I also remember reading a similar article (in the same magazine) a few years previously, that went so far as suggesting that a unisex website should have two faces to it, one for the women and one for the men. Imagine if your gender determined what skin your Facebook profile had or when us ladies logged onto the BBC site we we forced to view it through a pink, easy to read and girlie site to aid you us in reading the latest headlines. Surely there’d be an outcry at this stereotyping but that’s exactly what this article was suggesting. Pah!

But I digress, my point isn’t to whinge about the article as it was apparently based on a lot of research and I’m not going to argue with it…so, I’ll wheest for now and get on with the point of this post 😉

We all know that with any design, marketing or branding process, researching and knowing your target market is the most important part. Knowing what you’re selling and who you would like to sell to is one thing, really knowing your target market and getting into their shoes in order to appeal to them is another.