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i'm working on building personas at the moment, and was wondering how to choose gender for persona. According to gAnalytics and Facebook we have 70%, and 80% Female. Does this mean we should ignore Males in personas, and in design decision?
And if so, would that still be the case if their percentage is increasing?
Thanks in advance!
What you have now is a clear statistical evidence that shows most of your audience is female, and that you should take special care about that evidence.
Statistical evidence also shows that AT LEAST 20% of your audience is male. That is a really big number. Just imagine telling your SEO or stock holders "oh, it's just 20% so we have no problem in giving that away".
More important: you don't provide any info on your service, but it obviously caters a female audience. Then... why do you have such important amount of males? There's something there. And in the few cases I have seen this happen, it ended in a very interesting opportunity.
Basically, it seems you have something that is a bit diffuse somehow, and with a few adjustments, it can become something else. Probably more users, or more sales from that existing group or whatever (again, I have no idea what your service is about, but you get the concept)
In short: not only you need male personas, but they're of utmost importance
So, if your product is exclusive (100%) for women (for example Period Tracker app or something like that) then your personas should be women. But, if your product will be used by at least 1 man, then you should create a persona that represents that target category, even if it's 1% of your target. Every user counts.
Unless gender is the ONLY factor of interest, you should also create personas that encode ethnic identity, age, social class, and perhaps physical limitations.
