The women of The Femme Den were interviewed for Japan’s Axis Magazine in follow up to their very successful presentation at the Conference on Universal Design in Kyoto, Oct 2006.

The full interview is posted below:

“Despite the fact women make up half the world's population, product development responsive to female needs is still an undeveloped field. In the belief that developing female focused products will lead to more consumer satisfaction, we gave a talk at the conference about a project we call Femme Den.

This project started when we noticed that design lacked consideration for female users. In the development process we do our utmost to dispense with “adaptability,” a principle of UD. The reason is that if a product or service possesses true universal design then there's no need for women to adapt to that product. What's more important is an understanding of the psychology of complex and diverse women users. As a tool to achieve this we established five guidelines upon which we base product development: "Give Her Benefits Not Features,” "The Whole Experience,” "Consider Her Body,” "Consider Her Life-cycle,” and "Consider How it Makes Her Feel.” Hewlett-Packard's HP375 printer was a result of that approach. In development we were very aware of incorporating it into the lifestyles of women. The contemporary woman with her busy daily schedule does not appreciate being overwhelmed by technology. When we investigated user behavior we found women tended to show more interest in the photos they took than the printer's features, and in many cases they were the ones involved in organizing the family photos. Understanding that led to the birth of a cordless compact printer capable of one-touch printing and easy photo sharing. In the end it turned out that not just women but many people saw merit in these features, and the printer has been one of the greatest success stories in HP's history. We intend to turn our eyes towards design in a broad range of areas, including products for women, and develop an original universal design theory that will have an impact on a greater number of people.”

To learn more about Smart Design and The Femme Den, click here.