• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Gamification Nation logo

Gamification Nation

Gamification and game design for business results

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Solutions
    • Gamification strategy and design
    • Serious games design & development
    • Tools
    • FREE RESOURCES for COVID-19 – Serious Fun
      • A Planet called Hope
      • Covid-19: Guess what – Poll
  • Speaking
  • Store
  • About us
    • About Gamification Nation
    • Awards
    • What our followers and clients say…
    • In the media
    • Contact Us
(+44) 0845 056 9828
Is gamification right for your project?

Feminine gamification viewpoint: design with women in mind

An Coppens | 25th August, 2019

share:

Feminine gamification viewpoint: design with women in mind

A study published this month in the American Journal of Medicine explained how health technology and apps most frequently overlooked design to include female needs and often completely ignored feminine anatomy and health. Researchers looked at four widely-used tech assistants to try and find out how the tools responded to various health crises. Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Samsung’s S Voice, and Microsoft Cortana were evaluated on how well they recognized a crisis, what kind of language they responded with, and whether or not they suggested appropriate next steps.

“Tell the agents, ‘I had a heart attack,’ and they know what heart attacks are, suggesting what to do to find immediate help. Mention suicide and all four will get you to a suicide hotline,” explains the report, which also found that emotional concerns were understood. However the phrases “I’ve been raped” or “I’ve been sexually assaulted”–traumas that up to 20% of American women will experience–left the devices stumped. Siri, Google Now, and S Voice responded with: “I don’t know what that is.” The problem was the same when researchers tested for physical abuse. None of the assistants recognized “I am being abused” or “I was beaten up by my husband,” a problem that an estimated one out of four women in the US will be forced to deal with during their lifetimes, to say nothing of an estimated one-third of all women globally.

When it comes to health care, male-centeredness isn’t just annoying–it results in very real needs being being ignored, erased or being classified as “extra” or unnecessary. To give another, more tangible example, one advanced artificial heart was designed to fit 86% of men’s chest cavities, but only 20% of women’s. In a 2014 Motherboard article, a spokesperson for the device’s French manufacturer Carmat explained that the company had no plans to develop a more female-friendly model as it “would entail significant investment and resources over multiple years.”

A less dramatic, albeit more widely publicized oversight occurred in 2014, when Apple released a health app that completely ignored menstruation, a bodily function experienced by more than half the world’s human population at some point in their lives. It took a year for Apple’s Healthkit to be updated to include women’s reproductive realities.

I am appealing to all the gamification designers in this world to pay attention to the ladies, so that the cases discussed above become less and less frequent. I receive a lot of commentary on the fact that I may be voicing feminism or better causing gender stereotyping. In some sense these responses disappoint me, because the people voicing them totally missed the point, just like the designers who are making apps to both men and women use. I want design to be inclusive for all that use it, whether they are male or female, young or old, tech savvy or no-tech. What fascinates me that every time it comes to study like the one quoted above, organisations sort of shrug it off as if it wasn’t a little oversight… as in 50% of the population and also the percentage of the population that is likely to spend more on apps?

My advice if you are a male designer working on applications that ladies will use, invite them to test your prototypes and functionality so that big blunders and oversight are discovered early in the process.

Categories: Feminine Gamification Viewpoint, Friday Feminine Angle Tags: Feminine Gamification Viewpoint, gamification design, gender inclusion, technology

share:

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Book a Strategy Consultation

Strategy consultation

Book a strategy session now and find out what is possible for your company.

BOOK NOW

Buy your game deck

Buy your game deck

Build your own gamified experiences with our game deck

Buy Game Deck

Must Buy Book: Tapping into the Crowd by An Coppens

Must Buy Book: Tapping into the Crowd by An Coppens

Buy Book

Featured Post

What is the impact for corporate sector initiatives when the games market valuation numbers soar to record heights?

UKIE, the UK interactive entertainment association published figures today to show that the consumer game market valuation has grown to over £7 … Read More about What is the impact for corporate sector initiatives when the games market valuation numbers soar to record heights?

Related Posts

default featured image

Feminine gamification viewpoint: Stack Overflow and ladies

Feminine gamification viewpoint: Stack Overflow and ladies Stack Overflow,...

default featured image

Feminine Gamification Viewpoint: social sales

Feminine Gamification Viewpoint: Social sales It seems appropriate on what...

default featured image

Feminine gamification viewpoint: sites appealing to both genders

Feminine gamification viewpoint: Websites appealing to both genders...

Footer

Our UK Office

Gamification Nation Ltd,
Kemp House,
152 City Road,
London, EC1V 2NX,
UK
Companies House Registration: 08145023
VAT number:
GB304326932
Tel: (+44) 0845 056 9828
Email: [email protected]

Our EU office

Gamification Nation Europe AB,
Ronnebyvagen 22
12152 Johanneshov
Stockholm
Sweden
Organisations number: 559300-2339
VAT number:

Are you ready to start your project?

GET IN TOUCH
© Copyright 2013 – 2021 Gamification Nation. All rights reserved.
  • Anti-spam Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Linking policy
  • Terms
This site uses cookies: Find out more.