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Women Need Larger Screens for Desktop Navigation?

Posted by michael on from the francis'-2000"-LCD dept.

Mac of Macistan writes "In a recent article in the New Scientist, Microsoft's R&D claims that women have a harder time navigating the desktop because their spatial abilities are roughly 20% lower than men's abilities. Maybe Linux UI people can get a jump on MS by making KDE/Gnome more accessible to more females."

7 of 607 comments (clear)

  1. Orientation by Whigh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, that would explain why most men don't stop and ask for directions, eh?

    Wider screens and more realistic 3D animations, they say, will boost women's spatial orientation and 3D map-reading skills to match those of their male counterparts.
    Heck, this'll boost anyone's spatial orientation.

    Women, they found, find it easier to get their bearings when this animation is smooth and realistic, rather than jerky.
    Just about everyone does.

    Is it possible that with more intensive training, this spatial perception inequality might be eliminated?
    (Hint: Use this as an excuse to get more UT2K3 playing in!!!)

    1. Re:Orientation by Galvatron · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Yeah, I noticed that they didn't say if men experienced similar boosts in performance if they were given larger screens and smoother animations too. It seems to me that it's just as likely that the men were rushing, while the women were taking a more cautious and careful approach. Did they compare accuracy rates? 20% difference in cognitive performance seems pretty high, I'm not sure I buy it.

      Also, why divide people based on gender? I'm sure SOME of the men had poor spacial oriention, and SOME of the women must have been good at the task. Why not simply divide people into "fast" and "slow" groups based on performance in the initial set of tests? They don't seem to have done any testing to determine if solutions which seem to work for average women also work for under-performing men.

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  2. Gender Equality by LordChaos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... This one will really make the sh*t hit the fan in terms of gender equality. To make a blanket statement about the abilities of either gender is bound to form harsh criticism from many fronts.

    I mean perhaps the "spatial ability" of the different genders is tuned to a different form of interface. Perhaps the symptom we should be addressing is that current user interfaces are designed for use from the male aspect, and therefore the generic woman (whatever that is) functions in such an environment.

    In my psychology days we looked at many examples of studies that were swayed in a particular direction to to flaws in the testing procedures.

    Not to say that this article in new scientist really backs up its claims - statements such as it seems .. that women possess lower spatial abilities, and it tends

    But that's aside from the point - I can accept that men and women interact with a user interface in differing ways. But to suggest that taking a "male" user interface, and making it bigger - to adapt it more to the "generic woman" (see above) - I find ludicrous, and a vast underestimation of the task at hand.

    I'm just stirring, but I think it's really something to think about in the next decade as we move away from windowing environments to whatever is next - be it 3D interfaces on a 2D display, virtual immersion - or whatever... We need to think about things more than "lets make it bigger".

  3. Re:Sounds like... by itchyfidget · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...sexist scientific research to me. The usual men are better than women crap.

    I work in this field of psychology and believe it or not, this is one of the few areas of human performance where genuine sex differences are observed - repeatedly and reliably.

    You can see this principally in the visuo-spatial section of IQ tests. Some authors (e.g. Kimura) argue that this is because IQ tests tap a particular aspect of visuo-spatial awareness and that men are naturally superior in this regard, but that women excel in other visuo-spatial tests which tap different facets of the skill.

    If you go back forty years, IQ tests used to "show" that ethnic minorities were less clever - now it is known that those early tests were highly culturally-specific ("If you give the maid twenty items of clothing to press but she already has another thirty-two from your Ma and Pa, what time can you arrive at your tennis lesson?") - I think in a couple of decades we'll be seeing IQ tests that are a whole lot less gender-biased.

    --
    Mod early, mod often.
  4. News Flash by dsanfte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Heh. News flash, the genders aren't equal. One of them can bear children, the other can't. Other differences exist.

    Instead of trying to say both genders are equal, why not try this radical approach: accept that one gender has advantages over the other in some areas, and vice versa in others, and use those differences for the greater good!

    --
    occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
    1. Re:News Flash by Galvatron · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Instead of trying to say both genders are equal, why not try this radical approach: accept that one gender has advantages over the other in some areas, and vice versa in others, and use those differences for the greater good!

      How about an even more radical approach: accept that not all members of a given group are the same, and instead of assigning gender roles, encourage people to do whatever they're good at! If that means that there are more men doing tasks that involve spatial orientation, fine, wonderful. But it's absurd to say that women shouldn't do those tasks because they're not as good at them. People are individuals, not averages. Even your example of bearing children is not universal: some women can't give birth. So cut this evolutionary psychology crap and judge people for who they are, not based how a sample group of the same gender performed in a laboratory setting.

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  5. Re:Then why do they.... by jwilson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I want to reply to this comment because I want to have my comment as close to the top as possible.

    Slashdot SERIOUSLY messed this article summary up. Women do NOT have "problems nagivating the desktop". According to this article, women have less spacial cognizance when it comes to 3D environments such as FPS, MMORPG or games like Myst. 3D virtual worlds, NOT THE DESKTOP.

    What I DON'T want to see is a bunch of jerks spouting "women have a harder time navigating the desktop" than men, because Slashdot farked up their summary of the article. I mean, SERIOUSLY FSCKED it up. Desktop = 2D. Get it straight, boys... A lot of your readers only read the summary snippets and don't bother with the articles.

    For this kind of readership, you may just have spawned a whole new inaccurate generalization about women.

    Thanks, we needed this new kind of misinformation.

    I have no problem with the article, but I have a BIG problem with the summary snippet.

    Get it right.