Software for WomenWhat do women want?

Software for WomenWhat do women want?

Emily WinchCherSoft Ltd Software engineer Woman

Anthropologist

Women make up about half of the people ordained in the Church of England each year

In 2006 women received 57% of all degrees in the UK

"For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women?" Hanna Rosin

UK Computer science students 2010

Questions for us to think about

How are women really different from men?

Are these differences relevant to how we write software?

Could we or should we be doing things differently?

Generalisation alert!

Isn't this all horribly sexist?

"in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude" Lawrence Summer, then President of Harvard University

"...there can be injustice in treating people the same when in relevant respects they are different, just as much as there can be in treating people differently when in relevant respects they are the same..." be Mark Halstead, Education, Justice, and

Cultural Diversity: An Examination of the Honeyford Affair, 1984-85

Productive conversations about differences are

inquisitive open inclusive

Women, on average, are less strong than men, so let's make a range of lightweight power tools.

Women are less strong than men, so Beth shouldn't be allowed to join the army.

Some people are less strong than others, so let's make a range of lightweight power tools. h

Some people are less strong than others, so Beth and Jim should pass a strength test before they can join the army.

Declawing stereotypes

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How might our female users and customers be different from us?

Attention

"We all know that knowledge workers work best by getting into 'flow', also known as being 'in the zone' " Joel Spolsky

Wow, is it really 3am already?

Solving problems, software engineer style.

We often seem to value... focus and attention over multitasking and interruptions

Software Engineer's Manifesto

Your software is not the centre of my universe

Find and open slide software Make a blank slide Find and open browser, search for image Choose an image Save As, Make a folder, OK Switch to slide software Insert picture, browse to folder, choose image, OK Insert text Type quotation Find and open image editor. Open image, browse to folder, find the image, OK Add a semi-transparent white layer to the image Save Switch to slide software Insert image, choose the image from before, OK

Usability concepts....

What's the current state of mytraining materials sales pitchholiday plan?

I don't give two hoots about the state of

filesdocuments software programsmy inbox

Situational awareness

interoperability

interoperability

I want reminders of my appointments in time to drive there. I want to click on an appointment and select "drive to".

I want to drag the agenda onto the meeting in the calendar. I want to click on an appointment and call the other invitees. I want to drag pictures and web pages onto my contacts.

I want to drag a route onto my calendar.I wan

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Time

Women in households with children spend on average an extra hour a day on childcare compared to men

We often seem to value... focus and attention over multitasking and interruptions mastery of arcana over delivering business value

Software Engineer's Manifesto

"Then, sometime after college, we had our first child. After that, I found I couldn’t program any more. Seriously. There were just too many interruptions. As soon as I got back “up to speed” with the software I was working on and “recovered state” enough to make the next logical step, I would get another interruption, and the program would go back on the back burner. Later, I’d find myself having to puzzle out what I had written a day, a week, or even a month in the past. When I finally did get back into programming, it was through [...] Python. It was amazing. I could get stuff done again. That’s both because Python code is more compact and because it is more readable." Terry Hancock

Usability concepts....

Ubiquitous direct manipulation

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Gossip, n:

Hearing something you like about someone you don't.

It's not far from chatter and gossip TO TREASON!

Gossip

I am thinking of gossip as data in the great socialexperiment we call "community." Ann Burlingham

Gossip is the narrative of a community, its internal mythology, the stories the community tells about itself Darkhawk

Learning styles

We often seem to value... focus and attention over multitasking and interruptions mastery of arcana over delivering business value

individual prowess over team working ability

Software Engineer's Manifesto

Communication styles

Geek culture can be...

Aggressive CompetitiveConfident Direct and straightforwardInterruptingUsing insults as a form of bondingTaking pride in being unoffendable

Other people can be interested in...

Co-operation

Collaboration Consensus

Other points of view

Helping, mentoring and teaching

Expressing themselves "tactfully"

Aside: Why do so many women dislike this stereotype?

We often seem to value... focus and attention over multitasking and interruptions mastery of arcana over delivering business value

individual prowess over team working ability

direct speech over tact

Software Engineer's Manifesto

"Women are more likely to place intrinsic value on activities that help to build a network of trustedrelationships."

Emily Winch

Software communities are valuable to women

Women are valuable to software communities

Communities: norms and culture

Open source community

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

1. Try to find an answer by searching the archives of the forum you plan to post to. 2. Try to find an answer by searching the Web. 3. Try to find an answer by reading the manual. 4. Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ. 5. Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation. 6. Try to find an answer by asking a skilled friend. 7. If you're a programmer, try to find an answer by reading the source code.

Open source community

Describe the symptoms of your problem or bug carefully and clearly.Describe the environment in which it occurs. Provide your vendor's distribution and release levelDescribe the research you did to try and understand the problem before you asked the question.Describe the diagnostic steps you took to try and pin down the problem yourself before you asked the question.Describe any possibly relevant recent changes in your computer or software configuration.If at all possible, provide a way to reproduce the problem in a controlled environment.

Dreamwidth developer community"We welcome people of any gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, size, nationality, sexual orientation, ability level, neurotype, religion, elder status, family structure, culture, subculture, and political opinion. We welcome activists, artists, bloggers, crafters, dilettantes, musicians, ..."

A culture clash

Pat: "Hi, I’ve installed your software and I really like it. I have a question, how do I go about adjusting the whatnot?"

Jo: "This is addressed on page 5 of the manual."

A culture clash

Hi, I am too lazy to read the manual or try any of the menu options; I’d rather waste yourtime instead

Pat: "Hi, I’ve installed your software and I really like it. I have a question, how do I go about adjusting the whatnot?"

Please at least make some effort, you idiot, is my time so much less valuable thanyours?

Jo: "This is addressed on page 5 of the manual."

A culture clash

This community seems helpful: I’d like to be a part of it, although I don’t knowmuch about the software yet.

Pat: "Hi, I’ve installed your software and I really like it. I have a question, how do I go about adjusting the whatnot?"

Jo: "This is addressed on page 5 of the manual."

We are not interested in having you as part of our community. Go away.

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpful

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new people

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participate

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participateThank people for their contributions

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participateThank people for their contributionsAllow avatars and personal information in profiles

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participateThank people for their contributionsAllow avatars and personal information in profilesActively discourage unpleasant behaviour

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participateThank people for their contributionsAllow avatars and personal information in profilesActively discourage unpleasant behaviourWelcome the asking of "silly" questions

Making a forum into a community

Be real, friendly and helpfulWelcome new peopleEncourage them to participateThank people for their contributionsAllow avatars and personal information in profilesActively discourage unpleasant behaviourWelcome the asking of "silly" questionsProvide "back-channels" for everything off-topic or meta

Examples

Examples

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In conclusion...

Thank you for coming!