Abstract :
This study investigated graduate students’ gender-specific preferences for
certain website interface design features, intending to generate useful
information for instructors in choosing and for website designers in creating
educational websites. The features investigated in this study included colour
value, major navigation buttons placement, and navigation mode. In this
study, 56 graduate students in a north-eastern research university in the US
volunteered to evaluate 30 pairs of web page screenshots or website prototypes,
and to indicate on the questionnaires their preferences within each pair of
prototype. Each participant’s preferences for the three features were coded and
categorised for chi-square tests of independence to determine the relationships
between gender and the investigated design features. The findings of gender
effects on graduate students’ preferences for the aforementioned features were
presented and discussed
