We’ve just made a change to the Twile Family Tree to colour-code men and women, so that it’s easier to see at-a-glance what the make-up of a family is.
In deciding what Colours to use for each, the only obvious choice was Pink for girls and blue for boys. We were worried some people might not be too keen – especially as there is often heated debate around the stereotypical association of these colours in toys or clothes – but you’re still more likely to associate blue with boys and pink for girls, despite your opinion on it. So from a usability point of view, we think it makes sense.
But how did blue and pink get associated with boys and girls in the first place? I found an interesting article that summarises the history: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/10/pink-used-common-color-boys-blue-girls/
It seems that prior to the 20th century, pink and blue didn’t hold any gender-specific connotations and – even more surprising – until the 1940s it was more common for boys to wear pink and girls to wear blue. Pink was considered stronger and blue a more dainty colour.
By the way, if you’re not keen on our choice of colours, you can switch this feature off:
- Visit your family tree at https://twile.com/people
- Click/tap on yourself on the tree to open your profile
- Click/tap the ‘Preferences’ option
- Untick the ‘Use different colours for genders’ option
- Click/tap ‘Save’
What do you think of our use of pink and blue on the family tree?
