This makes me wonder of course what kind of signals this is giving us consumers – like, we know ads are annoying so if you pay us, we will make them disappear?

Anyway back to this ad – it’s the headline that intrigues me. It says, “Like removing facial hair with robot’s kisses”. It makes me want to imagine what a robot’s kiss would feel like.

Or perhaps I’ve already experienced that before but didn’t know? But I like the image it conjures up in my head and it made me curious enough to find out the product being advertised. Turns out it’s for the Philips SensoTouch 3D.

And that, my friends, is what makes men and women different in how we wish to be sold to. Women love descriptive language, words that help them visualize and imagine …  and even if it’s for a product that’s used by men, well, it doesn’t stop women from buying it for their men friends.

In her presentation at our WITX conference in Bangkok late April, Joyce Huang, founder of Singapore Geek Girls, said that 91% of women say that advertisers don’t understand them.

Joyce Huang

Talking about “Designing Digital Experiences For Women”, Huang said that “marketers are stuck in the past, creating campaigns and websites targeted at a female persona somewhere between Barbie and the Stepford wives. It’s time to drop these preconceptions about what makes for a “female-targeted” website and embrace the 21st century.”

Here are her tips:

1. Be female friendly but don’t dumb down your content

There’s no need to create a gender-specific website for your product but know that women experience sites holistically. Men compartmentalize their interaction.

Use white space and fewer dividing elements or boxes. She cites Appleand Mint.com as good examples of sites that use those features well.

You should do A/B testing on demographics ie have different landing pages for working moms vs working dads

Nike Women

2. Design for women, not girls 

You don’t need to douse everything with pink and pastels. Other boo-boos – scalloped borders, curly Victorian ornaments, script fonts and rounded corners on everything.

Sephora, Nike Women,  Harry Winston are good examples of sites that work for women.

If you want to use pink, use it as an accent colour rather than an all-over palette.

Victoria’s Secret website (left) is an example.

3. Copy should be concise, but persuasive.

While research shows that women respond to the same general rules of web usability that men do, women have been shown to respond favorably to friendly, conversational copy more than men.

“Inject personality into your copy and be straightforward in presenting information. If you want to try to create female-friendly copy, consider the voice in which you are writing,” said Huang.

4. Imagery – show real women to reflect your personas

Avoid stock photography that stereotypes women (left) – show a woman outside of the home, a woman in a role other than “mother”, a woman doing an activity that’s NOT yoga

5. Remember the baby boomer market

Nearly 60% of women aged 50 to 64 felt that if magazines were reflective of a population, a reader could likely believe that women over 50 do not exist.

Baby boomer women are independent. “Don’t show imagery of older women relying on men for financial security or for stability (sometimes literally leaning on them). They may have grown up in an era where the man was seen as the breadwinner, but it’s 2013 now and a majority of them don’t hold that same belief. Also be aware that it’s not uncommon for women this age to be divorced or widowed and happily living life alone.”

Baby boomer women are active. “These women don’t spend their days mourning over lost youth, empty nests, or stiffening joints.  For many, this point is a shift from “mom” to “me”.

“This is the time to start a new business, go back to college, travel abroad, pick up a new hobby, etc.  Don’t be patronising and refer to Boomer women as “golden”, “mature”, “seniors”, or even “middle-aged”. Appeal instead to their sense of adventure and energetic curiosity.”

Ultimately, Huang said it comes back to the reality of designing for humans.

“When you first embark on designing a website for women, start with basic user-friendly concepts: clear navigation, persuasive headlines, readable copy, strong calls to action, and quality imagery. Create a strong user experience foundation before you begin tweaking the design to appeal to a specific gender.”