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Can better design help technology and retail meet the needs of their female customers?
Can better design help technology and retail meet the needs of their female customers?
Women love technology; we love our devices. But we have started to get bored with the male-dominated designs. Where are the women designers in tech? We’ve been involved in technology since the 1990s, and it was always considered the male domain, but what’s happened in our business is that the female consumer has become the technologist. Yet the global industry has continued to design for men. So we got involved in the design side. I’ve been working with the new HP Spectre [notebook] and I said to the [team]: “This is fantastic, but you’re not showing me something for my female customer.” I sent them a couple of textures of a subliminal bronze cover with rose gold detail, something women are proud to have in their hands. It’s been a fantastic success and it’s going to evolve into other products. Samsung has done a new TV designed like a photo frame in different colours for the female customer who understands design.
We’re spending time with the design teams of companies we work with and asking how they’re serving the female customer. Those discussions dictate what will be stocked in our franchises. If you look at the “rock star” engineers who design the technology, they’re mainly men. Why aren’t there more women in Silicon Valley? Statistically there are, but they can’t get past a certain point and you’ve got to ask why. Many of the women are just as educated, bright and talented as men. Why is technology the most progressive workforce in the world, yet the statistics on women are woeful?
Those engineers aren’t designers; they’re not thinking about how beautiful this product is. Now more companies are bringing in good design teams. The technology in products today is fantastic and now it’s about the design. It could be design that changes the participation of women in Silicon Valley. Women like me running companies with technology must have a say. But there aren’t many female CEOs globally in my line of work. Girls are studying science but many can’t get jobs when they leave university. We can educate people but what jobs have we got for them? What is the government’s plan?
I find the technology space right now so interesting. We can make a difference as a retailer; we decide what goes on our floors. And the successful retailer is going to deliver what its customers want.
WE ASK COMPANIES HOW THEY SERVE THE FEMALE CUSTOMER