On Mon, 2012-03-12 at 14:59 -0400, James Vasile wrote: > On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:15:27 +0000, Ted Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, 2012-03-12 at 18:47 +0100, Mathieu Jourdan wrote: > > > > > > - my girlfriend took briefly a look on it, she said those colours were > > > for males. > > > > I'm no authority on this list, but I'd appreciate it if the freedombox > > initiative would use actual research for things like choosing > > gender-neutral design elements whenever possible. Most actual, empirical > > research on gender differences runs against gender stereotypes and finds > > mostly similarity, not differences, between genders. Further, the > > gendered context of design elements will change drastically between > > cultures. As such, our intuitive judgments as individuals will not be > > the best indicator of the actual gender-neutrality of design elements. > > > > I can devote some of my copious free time to doing some of the > > scholarship necessary for this (and I can act as a proxy to retrieve > > paywalled papers for anyone who asks). I will need guidance and specific > > questions, rather than general ones. > > Ted, I appreciate the caution and the methodical approach. I don't, > however, see tremendous value in testing what colors we use at this > stage. At this point, tinkering with colors will distract us from > making more substantive progress. We will test interfaces at a later > date, and if colors are a problem then we can address it later. >
I agree completely on not getting caught up on picking colors right now. I just wanted to note that people are starting to focus on a very important problem: removing gender bias from the FBX interface. (this is more general than just picking colors, and I want to emphasize that.) When people start attacking that problem, they need to use the strongest possible weapon: empirical research. Otherwise, we risk putting a lot of effort into things that we have no way of knowing are right.
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