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Gender and Web Design: The Implications of the Mirroring Principle for the Services Branding Model

This article appears in a peer reviewed journal that, according to the BJM04 is a rank 4 journal on a descending scale of 7-1 with 7 as the highest; according to ABSO9/ABDC08 this a ‘well regarded’ journal, publishing research of a good standard in terms of originality, significance and rigour. The originality of the research lies in its production of an empirical-based model highlighting the need to allow for the role of the homogeneity principles in successful product design and promotion, factoring in internal organisational determinants to design optimization for the first time. The model shows how optimizing design demands configuring design solutions around customer preferences rather than around ‘internal stakeholder preferences’, showing how the process appears sub-optimised in two of the three sectors discussed, the beauty and higher education (HE) sectors, sectors with a high female target market and with websites designed predominantly by men; in the sector in which the homogeneity principle is successfully followed (angling), there is a mirroring of the target market in web designer demographics. The article adopts a rigorous approach in examining three sectors with diverse customer demographics and, analyzing 30 websites from each sector, establishes the likely congruence between website and web end-user aesthetics. These sectors have distinct demographics – HE (mixed male and female), the angling industry (male-skewed) and beauty sector (female eschewed industry) and through inferences regarding the aesthetic evinced in a sample of industry websites and an understanding of the elements that appeal to men and women, the article highlights how the angling industry websites are likely to have more appeal to consumer base than the other two sectors. It reports, for the first time on the gender demographics of the web design industry and the co-authors are RW Gunn (Staffs, retired) and Krzysztof Kubacki, (Keele, now Griffith University, Australia).