{"id":2530,"date":"2015-04-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinkapps.com\/blog\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2015-04-20T12:46:35","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T20:46:35","slug":"tips-designing-apps-for-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkapps.com\/blog\/design\/tips-designing-apps-for-women\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Tips for Designing Apps for Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Groove CEO explains how to design mobile apps for women the right way. Hint: If you’re incorporating flowers, hearts, or dolls, you might want to re-think your design.<\/em><\/p>\n

When my company, Groove<\/a>, set out to build a period tracker<\/a>, we knew we were in for a challenge.<\/p>\n

Search for apps that target female customers, and you\u2019ll find yourself bombarded with flowers (along with other various flora), butterflies, hearts, cutesy fonts, and every shade of pink you can imagine.<\/p>\n

As a woman, finding a great app can feel like trying to purchase a respectable vehicle in the girls section of a toy store.<\/p>\n

\"4998098734_c20bed7985_b\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Image credit<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Gendered products have saturated just about every market, apps included.<\/p>\n

Do women really love pink, \u201cgirly\u201d things that much<\/i>? We\u2019ve found the answer to be a resounding \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women want better, and it\u2019s high-time developers start delivering better. Below is a list of seven surefire tips that will help any developer to design a kick-ass app for women.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Design for People First\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Oddly enough, designing an app for women looks a lot (read: pretty much exactly) like designing for anyone else.<\/p>\n

The big difference is that apps made specifically for women are still stuck in the Stone Age \u2014 they\u2019re riddled with subtle sexism, Barbie doll designs, and other tired clich\u00e9s and stereotypes.<\/p>\n

So when you first start diving into designing your app, don\u2019t ask yourself \u201cHow do I design an app that women will want to use?\u201d Instead, ask yourself \u201cHow do I design an app that everyone<\/i> will want to use?\u201d<\/p>\n

Approaching the design from this angle helped us\u00a0to\u00a0avoid many of the mistakes (and design faux-pas) made by other developers who design for women.<\/p>\n

2. Don\u2019t Make Assumptions<\/h2>\n

Many newbies developing apps for women fall into the trap of assuming users like the apps that are already out there.<\/p>\n

Download and open any of the hundreds of period trackers, and, more than likely, they\u2019re all relatively indistinguishable. Is that because users genuinely like<\/i> the way they look or because they\u2019ve simply come to accept the fact there\u2019s nothing good out there? My guess: the latter.<\/p>\n

If you want your app to have broad appeal, don\u2019t expect homogeneity among your users. When mocking up your design<\/a>, assume variability in gender identity, sexual orientation, likes, dislikes, etc.<\/p>\n

In other words, design for the real world<\/i>, not for the \u201cnorm.\u201d Taking this approach will likely lead to a vastly different design than the assumption that every user wants a Barbie-inspired app.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also helpful to ask yourself, \u201cHow would I design this feature if this was an app for everyone<\/i>, not just for women?\u201d Again: design for people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A huge pet peeve of mine when clicking through other period trackers was not being able to customize which data fields appeared on my data screen. They were only designed for a single use-case. But not all period-wielders are interested in being asked about pregnancy tests and ovulation predictor kits every time they enter data.<\/p>\n

We avoided this by not making assumptions about our users. We eliminated gendered pronouns and built our app to intelligently adapt both the educational info and data entry fields for each individual user.<\/p>\n

\"Groove<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Beware of Subconscious Bias<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re a member of society, you\u2019re biased.<\/p>\n

Bias affects our decisions whether we like it or not. If you think you\u2019re somehow immune, I hate to tell you, but you\u2019re probably wrong.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re designing an app in a sea of already heavily-biased designs, it\u2019s more important than ever to go out of your way to recognize and constantly challenge your biases.<\/p>\n

You might be rolling your eyes at how \u201cPC\u201d our world has become. But checking your bias isn\u2019t about being politically correct; it\u2019s about understanding and respecting diversity. It\u2019s about creating products and designs people love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why every feature we add to the Groove app<\/a> is meticulously designed. We\u2019re careful to ensure that any language we use can\u2019t be construed as offensive or sexist (even subtly). And we\u2019re hellbent on our app not contributing to or perpetuating stereotypes of any kind \u2014 we like to think we\u2019re helping to break them.<\/p>\n

Incorporating this into our design process has been humbling. It has not only helped us build something that people are legitimately delighted to use, it has also helped us grow both as designers and as individuals.<\/p>\n

4. Use Reviews to Guide Decisions<\/h2>\n

Reviews are a great way to gauge how your app is faring once it goes live, but they can also help guide design decisions before you ever submit it.<\/p>\n

But doesn\u2019t no app = no reviews? Well, yes, but you\u2019re bound to have a competitor or two. Even if it\u2019s an indirect competitor, reading their customer reviews is an invaluable exercise.<\/p>\n

Not only can you find out what their customers like about their app, but you can also learn what they\u2019re doing wrong, which is ultimately even more important. Make a list of things their customers don\u2019t like, and, as obvious as it sounds, don\u2019t do those things!\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

In our case, the complaints about competitor apps ranged from having too much pink, to too many flowers or butterflies, to sexist icons or design elements, to subtly (or plainly) offensive language, to confusing interfaces, to designs that resemble Barbie packaging. So we went out of our way to exclude each one.<\/p>\n

\"Groove<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Design From the Ground Up<\/h2>\n

Having competitors is usually a sign that you\u2019re onto something, but distinguishing yourself is vital if you want to avoid blending in \u2014 especially in period-tracker land.<\/p>\n

A great way to set your app apart is not to let competitor apps influence your design. It can be tempting to mimic a fairly successful competitor in hopes of making your own app successful, and I\u2019m sure this works in some cases. But if you really want to stand out, avoid mimicry at all costs.<\/p>\n

Mailbox<\/a> and Clear<\/a> are great examples of this. There are thousands of mail and to-do list apps, and most of them are strikingly similar. But Mailbox and Clear took a different approach. Instead of letting competitors influence their design, they designed as though mail apps and to-do list apps didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

We took the same approach at Groove. We were constantly asking ourselves \u201cAre we doing this because someone else did it or because it\u2019s actually the best way?\u201d We still design every new feature this way.<\/p>\n

Not only has this led to what we think is a killer design, but it prevents new features and functionality from feeling like an afterthought.<\/p>\n

More often than not, the ground-up approach leads to better design, cleaner interfaces, and less confusion about how to use your app. Mailbox and Clear make this, well, clear.<\/p>\n

\"Groove<\/a><\/p>\n

6. Talk to Your Target Audience<\/h2>\n

We hear it over and over: \u201cTalk to your users!<\/a>\u201d And not just one. Not 10. As many as you can.<\/p>\n

While people may not always know<\/i> what they want (e.g. we didn\u2019t know we wanted touch screens before they existed), talking to your target audience can give you a great sense of what they\u2019re looking for in an app.<\/p>\n

A really bad way to do this is to list off a bunch of features and ask a potential user which ones they\u2019d want. Instead, ask them to describe their ideal<\/i> solution<\/a>, and then find out what they don\u2019t<\/i> like about existing solutions. This, coupled with seeking diverse opinions, can help you hone in on your design.<\/p>\n

Be cautious, though, not to build exactly what people want. Because, more than likely, people will tell you what they want based on what they already know. I\u2019m guessing Clear\u2019s developers probably didn\u2019t find too many potential users who were just dying<\/i> to swipe their list items left and right.\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

If we had listened to every suggestion we heard, we\u2019d have dozens of features that aren\u2019t currently in our app \u2014 features that nobody has ever complained about not having.<\/p>\n

7. Keep Iterating<\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t assume you can tap out after your totally awesome and amazingly-designed app goes live. Listening to your users and providing top-notch customer service can go a long way.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t even count the number of period trackers that only push updates once or twice a year. Trust me when I say that it\u2019s not because they\u2019re perfect. Frequent iteration will give your app a reputation for greatness: great design, great usability, great customer service, great updates.<\/p>\n

Greatness is exactly what you need to set yourself apart. Now go out there and use these tips to design a badass app for women … or for anyone else.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can learn more by visiting Groove’s<\/a><\/em><\/em>\u00a0website<\/a> or following the startup on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Featured image credit<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Aldoretta, who is the female CEO of Groove, a women’s health startup, shares advice on the right way to design mobile apps for women. (Hint: If you’re incorporating flowers, hearts, or dolls, you might want to re-think your design.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":2946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,38,200,245],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n7 Tips for Designing Apps for Women<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jennifer Aldoretta, who is the female CEO of Groove, a women's health startup, shares advice on the right way to design mobile apps for women.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thinkapps.com\/blog\/design\/tips-designing-apps-for-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 Tips for Designing Apps for 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