Pink, Waterproof and Scented: Designing Mobile Technology for Women
Karen E. Fisher, Tammara Combs Turner, and Carol F. Landry
Dr. Fisher presented the work that she had completed during her sabbatical at Microsoft Research, working with the Community Technologies Group on DEVI, a proposed mobile device intended to assist women with shopping activities.
The motivation behind the DEVI project is to produce technology targeted at women’s needs and women’s work. Dr. Fisher noted that women are a traditionally underserved population when it comes to technology design, as a large amount of information technology has been designed for men and for business and gaming activities. The DEVI project’s goal is to produce the ultimate “go-to” device for women.
This work draws from the IBEC group’s prior studies of how women use information in their everyday lives. The research team considered the wide range of roles that women play in their everyday lives. For this project, the group focused on the role of “family shopper”. Women may benefit from technology that integrates this role with their other roles, while supporting their social and affective needs.
The study
In order to better understand the work of shopping, the research team conducted interviews with 14 women and accompanied these women on a one hour shopping expedition. These women ranged from high school students to retirees. Each women scored highly on a “like to shop” measurement scale. Four of the women in the group asked to be interviewed in pairs, including two lifelong friends who had shopped together for many years. Dr. Fisher was initially resistant to the idea, but decided that working with dyads might provide another view of the social aspects of shopping.
The study uncovered a number of interesting themes related to shopping strategies, lending and borrowing, managing information, and social practices. Whether shopping for themselves or others, shopping is inherently a social activity. Women shop to connect with others, to make themselves happy, and as a way to find downtime. Shopping is a collaborative activity and is often intergenerational, providing family members with an opportunity to share information and shopping strategies. Shoppers may talk to one another throughout the shopping activity, either in person or over the phone. The researchers identified a number of skills related to shopping that might be taught or learned, including finding deals and learning social norms. Shopping strategies may also be thought of as information problem solving strategies.
This work led to several theoretical models. The research team produced a model of shopping needs based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Shopping needs ranged from essential or basic shopping tasks to gift-giving and serendipitous shopping trips.
The research team also produced a life-stages model that describes the benefits and barriers to shopping throughout the lifespan. This model consists of three stages.
1. Young
- Are excited by shopping opportunities (“shopportunities”)
- Limited in the amount of money that they can spend
2. Prime
- Overwhelmed by the number of available shopportunities
- Feel need to stay organized
3. Mature
- Experience decrease in ties and local events
- Want to stay connected with friends and family
- May be difficult to shop for family members, who may live in a different place and may have unknown style preferences
Design recommendations
Participants in the study were asked to answer the “magic wand question”: if the participant could have any kind of device to help out with shopping, what features would it have?
The research group identified three general classes of needs related to shopping and technology: information needs, communication needs, and needs related to the physical characteristics of technology.
1. Information needs
- Provide access to:
- Contacts
- Calendar (with integrated sales)
- Diaries
- Lists
- Closet inventory (self and friends)
- Location information
- Women’s health calendar
- Search functions
- Device training and help
- Finance (how much to spend)
2. Communication needs
- Integrate with messaging systems
- Feedback from friends or the public when trying things on
- Ability to look back at past outfits
- Discussion groups
- Linking with others for impromptu shopping trips
3. Physical needs
- Device characteristics
- Small
- Easy to use
- Bright color
- Indestructible
- Scented
- Integrate features
- Mirror
- Tape measure
- Record and replay scents
- Panic button
- Pedometer
- Gaming
In addition to all of these requests, the women strongly desired a device that was simple and integrated. Most people today carry a large number of devices and artifacts with them. Technologies that integrate the functions of these artifacts could help address this problem.
Designing technology for women may present many opportunities for industry. Harnessing “the power of Oprah” could lead to many new marketing opportunities. The work described here is also occurring in parallel with a general convergence between IT and the fashion industry, as technologists begin to consider how to make their products fashionable, and fashion designers consider how to modify their designs to better support technology use.
Dr. Fisher described several opportunities for future work, including a quantitative study to produce greater generalizability and a study of women and men who are less oriented toward shopping. The research group may also look at closet organization, and may begin to prototype mobile applications in the future.
Questions
Q: How to demographic factors affect these types of shopping behaviors?
A: The sample was too small to see any effects of this type.
Q: Did any of the participants present concerns about privacy related to the sharing of shopping information?
A: This was not a common concern among the participants in this study.
Q: How did the women in the study describe the role played by men in the family as it related to their shopping behavior?
A: There was not much discussion of this topic. Some women mentioned that men did not seem to understand the women’s desire to shop. In some families, shopping duties were split between men and women such that each person had their own shopping domain.
