Designers argue that Different Brains demand a Different Design Style for Women

Characteristic cognitive differences between men and women are no longer in doubt. Untold, the community that discusses the relationship between gender, design and technology, mounted a night of discussion at London’s ICA, 'Designing from a Different Perspective', to examine these differences in the context of digital design.

Untold founder Jane Austin of digital design agency Recollective introduced two speakers: Sarah Morris of Skybluepink and Alessandra Lariu of Oyster, both of whom have researched the issue as a way of improving their work.

Morris' talk, on 'Empathy or Ego', took as its frame the work on e-type brains and s-type brains by Simon Baron-Cohen ("The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain"), making it relevant to a discussion on design by and for women. Average women have e-type brains: empathetic, starting 'from the position that your view of the world may not be the only one, or the true one, and that [those others'] views and feelings matter' whereas an average man is s-type: a systematiser, someone who intuitively figures things out.

Talking about user research, Morris said that 'the natural way to understand and predict the nature of events and objects is to systemise; the natural way to understand and predict the nature of a person is to empathise'.

She looked at the problems facing women, saying that, for instance, RIBA (the gatekeeping body to working as an architect in Britain) viewed e-type design behaviour patronisingly as 'having a cup of tea and a chat with a client'. Implicit seems disrespect for gathering the less formal aspects of requirements, upon which the success of a project often hangs.

Morris showed some mobile phone innovations her agency had produced by working from ethnographic data, a method she situated firmly in the e-type world of design, contrasted with more scientific means of assessing user characteristics and what she labelled 'HCI'. She distinguished between 'human-centred design' and 'people-centred design', the preferred latter being about understanding and responding appropriately: the marks of empathy. Regarding this from the perspective of the range of what HCI can entail, her distinctions seemed arbitrary, but this did not affect the practice she advocated.

Alessandra Lariu, of interactive consultancy Oyster, offered further reflections based in biology and socio-cultural gender findings, looking at creating brands and designing experiences for women. Recognising the importance of women as influencers as well as purchasers – women are three times more likely to recommend a brand than men if they like it – she advocated presenting messages so that they offer a contextual view of the world, with a clear ethical standpoint, the chance for connection with others and recognisable people as examples of users, especially in any imagery.

This she based on secondary research that has shown women to have better left-right brain connections, to operate more using peripheral vision, to be able to conduct several tasks at once and to prefer interaction with peers to the hierarchies favoured by men.

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