Years ago, I had the honor to be involved in the launch of a pretty innovative product line, Purple Moon, designed to engage grade-school girls in computer use at an age when interest dropped off pretty dramatically just as boys attraction to computer games led them to play for hours. The theory was that if there were computer games that got girls as excited as Doom or Myst did boys, it might create a comfort level with technology that would later open doors in computer, math and science careers, which have woefully few women.
Brenda Laurel, founder of Purple Moon, based the company's package of CD's, an interactive web site, and (launching later) books, all linked via a set of characters led by a spunky redhead named Rockett. "Friendship Adventures For Girls," as the series was called, were based on 6 years of research that found girls were more interested in social aspects of play than the achievement oriented goals of shoot-em-up's like Doom. Unfortunately, Purple Moon got steamrolled (and later acquired) by Barbie and the well-oiled machine that is Mattel.
But Brenda's research and resulting theory - that social interaction and storytelling would be the key connector between girls and computers - is finally being borne out today. Not in CD-Rom's or online gaming, though that audience is growing, but in blogs, social networks and podcasts. Even better, according to this New York Times piece(oddly posted in Style & Fashion instead of Technology) their computer usage in these key areas is outpacing boys, and by quite a few percentage points. As quoted in the article:
Indeed, a study published in December by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that among Web users ages 12 to 17, significantly more girls than boys blog (35 percent of girls compared with 20 percent of boys) and create or work on their own Web pages (32 percent of girls compared with 22 percent of boys).Girls also eclipse boys when it comes to building or working on Web sites for other people and creating profiles on social networking sites (70 percent of girls 15 to 17 have one, versus 57 percent of boys 15 to 17). Video posting was the sole area in which boys outdid girls: boys are almost twice as likely as girls to post video files.
Seems Laurel was dead on, but missing one additional element that neither she nor the girls themselves could have imagined back then - storytelling with established characters, even with the option to create their own, perhaps limited the canvas a bit too much. What ultimately has gotten girls going is an entirely blank slate (whether this translates to more women in tech careers has yet to be seen). Knowing this, marketers might reverse their thinking a bit - instead of trying to get girls involved in contests or campaigns that are developed within the company, perhaps recognize some girls who are already innovating all on their own and become part of it. Sponsors of indie music podcaster emogirltalk.com, run for the last three years by now 17-year-old Martina Butler, include Nature's Cure and GoDaddy.com, who wisely realized they couldn't have done it better themselves.
For more on Purple Moon, the research behind the concept and why it failed, in Laurel's own words, read this fascinating article, which includes Laurel's thoughts on why research is still critical in product development.
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