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Ask DN: Transgender on a gender question for a form?

almost 7 years ago from Luis La Torre, Designer.

  • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 7 years ago

    Do you absolutely need to ask? How will it benefit the person you’re asking? It’s good to be inclusive, but I’d argue very strongly that no site or app or service needs to know, and that the question probably shouldn’t be asked.

    If your reasoning is analytics, then you don’t really need to know and you probably shouldn’t be collecting that data.

    If your reasoning is to personalise text, you can use “they”, and you don’t really need to know.

    At the very least, you could make the question optional. I still have not seen one case where I thought asking was justified. I don’t even think gender should be needed for a passport or driver’s license.

    13 points
    • Andy Warburton, almost 7 years ago

      This... unless you are creating a form collecting medical data, I can't think of any genuine (i.e. not marketing) reason why you would need to know your users gender.

      3 points
    • Luis La TorreLuis La Torre, almost 7 years ago

      Interesting. I remember a marketer once told me that women spent so much more money online shopping than men. So ever since I have been asking on surveys and other forms. Should I avoid it?

      0 points
      • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 7 years ago

        Assuming the advice is correct, you’re still optimising for marketing and analytics benefit, rather than the benefit of the customer. That might be okay in some cases, but at the very least you should probably make the question optional. It’s a very loaded question and one that might require them to give up very personal information.

        1 point
    • Jrtorrents Dorman , almost 7 years ago

      I once applied for a job, they stated explicitly in the job description that they were looking for a female but I missed it and applied anyways.

      They still invited me for interview. During the interview I asked why they considered my application eventhough I'm make. Their excuse was that they're looking for a feminine (or more softer) design sense and since my portfolio fit that they decided to invite me.

      0 points
      • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 7 years ago

        they stated explicitly in the job description that they were looking for a female

        Interesting. Pretty sure that’s illegal where I live (Australia).

        0 points