To find out more about women’s car ownership, I sent out a survey to members of the Ohio State University’s chapter of Society of Women Engineers (SWE). My survey consisted of questions about their vehicles, questions about trunk space, and questions about their relationship to their car and cars in general.
I unfortunately only received six responses. The responses I did receive were from young women engineers ages eighteen to twenty who all owned internal combustion engine (gas-powered) cars. Even though I didn’t get as many responses as I would have liked, I still feel that I have gathered interesting data that will help me in my design process.
Some of the conclusions were unsurprising, like grocery shopping being the most selected use for the trunk space, or that most of the cars were either gifted to them or bought by relatives (they’re students, after all). Other data went against my expectations, like most of the cars being outdoorsy-looking SUVs over smaller cars like sedans. This was interesting because those surveyed were students, who do not need a large vehicle with many seats like say someone with a large family would. I was also surprised that although the trunk spaces were of average size or larger, the respondents felt their items to be mostly secure in the trunk while transporting them.
Not depicted in the graphics above, I also noticed that at least half of the respondents displayed affection for their vehicles, one respondent referring to her car as a “she”, and another saying she loves her Subaru and calling it “so cute!”. Only one respondent had not made any changes to personalize their car, while others made a few changes to personalize their vehicle. These points show ways in which people connect with their cars, personifying and customizing their rides.
What does this mean for my capstone? For one, there’s much more primary research that needs to be done. This is only a small chunk of what I could learn from gathering data from women who own cars. As for what I’ve learned, there is still room for improvement when it comes to item security in trunks and ease of use, and perhaps there is a way to encourage more personalization of one’s car through design.
