Here is a brief synopsis of a paper I found which says NO
- Gender Preferences in Web Design:Usability Testing through Eye Tracking
Background
A bricklet is a smallwindow with specific useful information that
makes the navigation faster and easier for a user (e.g., important
notices and/orlinks to frequently visited website). The main purpose
of bricklets is to bring important information to the attention of a
user.
The Hypothesis :
While many factors can influence the effectiveness of bricklets, in
this study we focus on the effects of background color and image and
investigate whether these factors can affect the noticeability of
bricklets by male and female users
H1) Female participants will notice bricklets with pictures of people
more than males.
H2) Female participants will notice bricklets with a light color
background more than males.
The findings
The analysis of the self report survey showed that male users found the bricklets withpictures significantly more appealing than those
without pictures. The paired t-test did not show a significant
difference in thevisual appeal of the bricklets with or without
pictures for women. Similarly, the pair t-tests did not show a
significantdifference in self reported noticeability of the bricklets
with or without pictures for men and women. These results do
notsupport hypothesis one
Hypothesis two proposes that female users, more than male users, will notice the bricklets with the lighter background color.The paired
t-test did not show a significant difference in fixation (stares
longer than 300 ms) between male and female users looking at the
bricklets with dark and light backgrounds.
Conclusion
The results did not show any significant difference between the
genders with regards to the number of times they fixated on the
bricklets. Nor did the results of fixation analysis show any
significant differences between men and women in regards to bricklets
with different background color
However In a recent usability survey, researchers from Southern Illinois University found that after ease of use, men prefer fast download speed to easy navigation. Women prefer ease of use, easy navigation, and accessibility. The researchers hypothesize that these different usability criteria are due to differences in how men and women use the Web.
