Gender sensitive design practices

Abstract

To what extent and in what ways do companies take gender into account in their design decisions? In the past, commerce has been criticized for designing for the dominant group in society—the notorious young, white, able-bodied, highly educated male—to the exclusion of user groups who do not fit these criteria. It has been argued that by designing for everybody, designers in fact unconsciously follow the male norm in society. The question of this article is the following: Which dominant design methodologies can be found in practice when designers make products aimed to include women? The ways in which gender gets drawn into the design process for a large diversity of ICT products will be reviewed, such as for games, Web sites, mobile phones, and computer parties.