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May 05, 2004
Designing technology for women?
This is one of the pictures promoting Jens Of Sweden's new MP3 player MP-130:
It looks nice and I think its great that technology is marketed to women. But this is also an example of how technology often is marketed to women as 'other things' (make-up mirro) than 'technology'.
To follow up the discussion about stereotypes below - I think it's an interesting idea from Helga to try to 'stereotype' in new and different ways (which is a way to break up stereotypes). But regarding technology, it seems that it's hard to imagine that women like the technology itself - it's hard to create stereotypes of women's pleasure in technology. So excuses are made up to make women buy technology - its about mirrors, colours, communication or whatever, instead of technology.
Posted by Hilde Corneliussen at 06:06 AM | Permalink
Comments
She has two left hands??
Posted by: JuanPablo at May 5, 2004 12:34:07 PM
Yes she has!? I didn't see that before. It must be manipulated. Maybe the designer thinks that a picture of the 'real world' (which would look like two left hands) would confuse the female audience?
Posted by: Hilde at May 5, 2004 12:53:25 PM
It's so interesting, considering that study after study says that men are the much easier sell. Women
want to know how something works, what it will do for them, how much they need, in short they want to tknow
about the technology, not just the packaging.
I think the iPod, for example, is a product that women are responding to because it's a device that works really well and not simply because you can get it in pink. Apple also was smart in marketing the iPod mini in media outlets that are hospitable to women, like lifestyle magazines, not just the gadget magazines that strongly target men. But I think in the end, all most people are seeing is that the pink music player sold well to women because it looked cute. Frustrating.
Posted by: Mia at May 5, 2004 6:03:46 PM
The two left hands is a nice detail.
Because I do a fair amount of photograpy myself, I just noted that it probably was the photographer's left hand in the picture. Then I noticed that the model was left handed wondered when and if the photographer became aware of that.
I believe there are two ways of interpreting the picture. One would be that someone is using the shiny player as a make-up mirror. The other interpretation would be that the player is used to have a sneak peek at a girl. I guess the difference is gender-specific.
Posted by: Håkon Styri at May 6, 2004 4:22:50 AM
I like Håkon Styri's two interpretations, and although I am male, I tend to agree with the latter interpretation for more empirical reasons. Firstly, the person holding the player is of fairly ambiguous gender if you assume that they are not looking at a reflection of themself. The hand holding the player is not exaggeratedly feminine, like I would expect of an advertisement explicitly targeting women. On the other hand, the advertiser may be going for a more realistic portrayal (no elaborately decorated nails, etc.) I think the angle of the woman's face also seems to indicate that the person holding the player isn't the person we're seeing reflected in it. It looks like we can see the holder's sock-covered right foot blurred out next to the left half of a pair of shoes. It also appears like this is a top-down shot of the product, maybe from a camera held near the midriff. I tried to duplicate this scenario myself by grabbing the nearest portable reflective surface to me, a CD, which, granted, may not be appropriate for comparison because of its shape and dimensions. However, by holding the CD in my palm poisitioned parallel to the floor (I'm assuming this based on the fact that we can easily see the subject's feet), it's very difficult if not impossible to see my face as you do in the advertisement. It seems like you'd have to tilt it towards yourself and hold it higher up in order to see your *own* face.
Posted by: exwhyze at May 6, 2004 9:03:58 PM
That might be true, that it is considered necessary to pretty things up to appeal to the female market. I think that is true not just for technology. - Take clothes for example - a lot more design goes into womens clothes than mens clothes.
I still think it is just a question of time and that technology (and its accessories) will become more and more trendy - the iPod is a good example, and as is the mpeg player for people with multiple left hands. I think there is a definite need for that, at least based on the number of hits i get on an old post on gadgets for women (http://helga.simblogg.is/archives/003801.html) - most of them from searches for laptop bags for women.
Posted by: helga at May 7, 2004 7:49:05 AM
I see it a bit differently, as an indicator that women in the aggregate demand better-designed technology. This is expressed in less tolerance for 120-button remote controls, poorly-designed MP3 players, etc. When you have a bulky, clumsily designed MP3 player with twice the number of buttons and a crummy display compared to an iPod, you have to focus the marketing on the tech specs alone. When you have a design edge, you can market to people who care about better design, and in the aggregate you'll find more women there than you will with a product that's all technology and no grace.
It's not necessarily so much a matter of patronizing or talking down to women as it may be women on average demanding products that promise both good technology and a higher level of usability, portability, etc.
Posted by: steve koppelman at May 16, 2004 9:34:22 AM
Because I can't seem to comment on the gender sterotypes discussion mentioned in the post:
"In the news it is also emphasized that she cannot be compared to male geeks. She does not use 'that much time' playing games, she says. And her boss stresses that she is 'a player(ess)', but not as good as the 'extreme' players."
2004
"Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a School...a real, honest, old fashioned Boarding-school ... where girls might be sent to be out of the way and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies."
1816 (from Emma by Jane Austen)
Well, at least we aren't "sent to be out of the way" anymore, I guess that's progress.
Sorry, obviously there's been much more progress than that, I just noticed the similarities (its one of my favorite quotes) and had to comment.
Posted by: Jenny at Jun 5, 2004 8:47:31 PM
The fact that "trendy" products sell better has been mentioned. What the hell is "trendy"? It is something that everyone seems to be buying i.e. something that sells well. Chick logic at its best!
Posted by: Julius at Jun 5, 2004 11:55:42 PM
