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Over the past decade the computer user community has become increasingly heterogeneous. Computers are now much more widely available and are to be found in most schools and places of work. In response to the greater variety of user, designers have become more concerned with the issue of usability. This has led to a growing need for a fuller understanding of the significant differences between users and user groups so that attempts can be made to accommodate these differences in the design of future systems. Two possibly important sources of variation between users are sex and cognitive style. This paper aims to explore these two concepts, to discuss some of their implications for system design and to finally highlight those aspects which may require further investigation.