The Gender Neutral Trend in Web Design.

Most people anticipate that gender-neutral web design, which is now being more widely used, will become the norm. The apparent first step is to avoid the overtly gendered features that were once so prevalent, such as aggressively pink personal care products and camping gear with themes of fire, wolves, and knives. Men buy cosmetics and women buy power tools, but it’s simple to make uninformed judgments based on traditional norms.

Multiple gender options and pronoun choices are now commonplace in forms and drop-down menus. Currently, 42% of Americans believe that there should be several choices. Even better, websites can completely remove both of those options if there is no pressing need for them to be present, as Snapchat has done.

Google’s gender selection options usually say Male or female, and I’d rather not say “Below, there is writing that reads “Choose who can view your gender,” along with three button choices: Only you, Your company, or anybody.”

When gender is not stated in the text, the new convention is to use they rather than he or she. Even in e-commerce, several sites are moving toward inclusivity by choosing not to categorize clothing by gender, providing many sizing options, and showing models wearing different body types to make their products more approachable.

Avoid making the following assumptions about the users of your website: what their genders may be, and what interests they may have based on their gender. Avoiding these presumptions is more courteous, and your visitors will respect you for it.