Building on that idea, you could have the label change to His Birthday if the person selects that the SO is a male, Her Birthday if selects that SO is a female. Not sure though what you would do with the Self-Identifies As, maybe Other with a Their Birthday label (course, then we get back to that again :), but it would be for a fringe case - since I believe you already identified that 80% of your market is straight women.) Don't get too hung trying to design for a rare fringe case and risk alienating your main audience.
Good luck. Courtney Jordan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Katie Albers Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:19 PM To: IxDA Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] "His/Her" vs. "Their" in website copy When you've got this kind of question, it's usually best to start by reconsidering the way you've cast the whole thing. Can you put the info into two separate boxes (or otherwise divide them?). Then you have the section where you ask for the person's data and the section where you ask for the spouse/partner's data. Include gender in both areas (which, incidentally, is *not* binary -- I suggest using male/ female/self-identifies as: with a text box for the last) if it matters to you at all, and have the user select spouse/partner/other for the second set of data. Then, under that goes the same set of queries as for the primary user with no his/her/their problem to be found. Does that help? Katie Albers User Experience Consultant & Project Manager [email protected] 310 356 7550 On Jul 22, 2009, at 3:23 AM, William Hudson wrote: > Chris - > > 'They' and 'their' are increasingly popular as singular personal > pronouns. There is even a Wikipedia page on the subject (so it must be > true<g>) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they > > Certainly 'they' and 'their' are much less clumsy than 'he or she' and > 'his or her'. > > Regards, > > William Hudson > Syntagm Ltd > Design for Usability > UK 01235-522859 > World +44-1235-522859 > US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM > mailto:[email protected] > http://www.syntagm.co.uk > skype:williamhudsonskype > > Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). > Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, > Abingdon > OX14 2DS. > > Confused about dates in interaction design? See our new study (free): > http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/datesstudy.htm > > 12 UK mobile phone e-commerce sites compared! Buy the report: > http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/uxbench.shtml > > Courses in card sorting and Ajax interaction design. London, Las Vegas > and Berlin: > http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/csadvances.shtml > http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/ajaxdesign.shtml > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of >> Christopher Rider >> Sent: 21 July 2009 13:48 >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: [IxDA Discuss] "His/Her" vs. "Their" in website copy >> > ... > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe > ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines > ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help > .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
