Designing for Diversity in Design Organizations

Presented to: O’Reilly Design Conference, March 2017

Molly Beyer - @Beyer_MollyEli Silva - @EliSymeon

Who are We?

Molly Beyer, @beyer_mollyAnthropologist thinking about thick data in civic tech. Computational ethics, public health, ebola, emergencies. feminist. Likes political art, noise, bikes.

Eli Silva, @EliSymeonProduct designer advocating for #DiversityinTech. Cloud Computing, Design, Ethics, Mutual Aid. Likes pancakes, politics and languages.

Diversitythe outcome of a creative process aimed at increasing inclusion.

Design is about asking questions of who to include in studies, and ‘are these the right things for the user?’

This is Water

Neurodiversity (n.)the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits, regarded as part of normal variation in the human population; used especially in the context of autistic spectrum disorders.

“...autistic people shouldn’t have to pretend to be “normal,” to be conventionally social, in much the way African-Americans should not have to pretend to be white to be professionally successful. True diversity entails a more radical form of difference...one more extensive than what he regards as the accommodational agenda.”-David Platzer, Dissertation 2017

GenderMag.Org A tool for testing for Gender Bias in software tools developed by Margaret Burnett, Professor of Computer Science, Oregon State University

Existing gender differences in software

MotivationInformation ProcessingComputer Self-EfficacyRisk AversionTinkering

NEURODIVERSITY

“Ignoring or removing gender [or other intersections] in users makes it harder to address implicit stereotypical assumptions.”-Ewa Luger, A Design for Life: Recognizing the Gendered Politics Affecting Product Design, 2014

con-scien-tiz-ation (critical consciousness)

praxis (action based on conscientization)

Participatory ResearchDefine what existing needs and resources are fromusers themselves, NOT just in testing or after an idea.

“...eliminate the possibility that we can function as all-knowing silent interrogators” - bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 1994

“The first job we have to do is not designfor ourselves.”– Erica Eden, 2015

Evaluating ImpactUser-test across multiple intersections.Connect with primary outcome of participatory research. Are you answering the identified problem?

Designing for Diversity in Design Organizations

We hear all the time:The experience is the product.

The experience of inclusion is the product of organizational design.

Image: Bonkers World, Manu

Image: Bonkers World, Manu

Many Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives are conceived and executed with little visibility into what the target audience desires or needs, and what barriers they actually face.

After spending two years and $265 million on the effort, Google’s employee population was only 2% black in 2016, the same percentage as it was in 2014.

- Beth Winegarner, “Google’s Hardest Moonshot: Debugging Its Race Problem” Fast Company

“Top universities graduate black and hispanic computer science and computer engineering students at twice the rate that leading technology companies hire them.”– USA Today Study cited by Bonnie Marcus, Forbes 2015, “The Lack of Diversity in Tech is a Cultural Issue”

Reducing the distance between designers and the many populations they serve is perhaps the single most important charge to the design profession today.– Beth Tauke, Korydon Smith, and Charles Davis; Diversity and Design: Understanding the Hidden Consequences

Source: Margaret Hagan, dSchool

Diversity Debt (n.)A concept in organizational design that illuminates the extra work that must be done when decisions about culture and diversity are ignored or optimized for short-term gains instead of applying the best overall solution.

- Susan Wu, “Welcome to Diversity Debt: The Crisis that Could Sink Uber”

“Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else.” — Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, 2017

“If you’re not asking ‘how could this be used to hurt someone,’ in your design/engineering process, you’ve failed.”– Zoe Quinn

Apply Design methods to people problems,just like the stuff we make.

Literally start with people (Empathize)

Who is telling our inclusion story?Ask if the story your company tells about its own diversity and inclusion is coming from the ground up.

Suggestions:Define ‘Culture Fit’ very tightly, on paper, so there’s no ambiguity. Revisit often to check for bias.

Look at job descriptions you control for words like “Dominate, competitive, pleasant.” (Descriptions that use biased language get 42% fewer submissions.)1

Run language in job ads through a Gender Bias Reduction Tool (Gender-decoder.katmatfield.com, DotEveryone.com)Image Credit: Pexels, Data Source: ZipRecruiter

Define the problem

What does the problem actually look like?

Suggestions:Journey map your diversity gaps for biases and obstructions.

Focus on high impact, high frequency problems first, as these are likely to most demonstrably affect some change.

Pick specific targets within these problems to address, using a matrix of impact to employees/candidates and ability to solve.

Generate specific insights and problem definitions.“We use gendered language in 46% of job listings” is a lot more powerful than “We have some bias in job listings.”

Ideate in response to REAL needs

How does our idea meet the needs we have heard?Suggestions:Before you generate a single idea, pick a feasible goal, that you can align on.

Seriously and without question, involve the people you’re reaching out to. Listen to them and let them help steer your efforts.

Learn from your own internally marginal groups and empower them to generate AND implement ideas for change. (Women, Minorities, LGBT, Disabilities, Neurodiversity)

Define a way to measure impact before you start building something.

Image Credit: Pexels

Prototype for best fit

How might our culture/process hurt someone?Suggestions:Do your research. Evaluate how your idea to increase diversity has collected feedback and gained visibility into the lives of those you’re designing for.

If your campaign or effort focuses on a marginal group, bring them to the table during the idea phase, give them the power to shut you down.

Ask, “How might what we’ve built here hurt someone,” BEFORE you release it into the wild.

Image Credit: William Stitt

Prove it

Did we build it right?Suggestions:Make sure you align to the double goals of “have a positive, measurable impact,” and “specific solutions to specific problems.”

Build a feedback loop into new D&I efforts, as wellas existing ones, and react to feedback as quicklyas possible.

You only get to succeed if you can demonstrate:[ ] We Listened.[ ] We Included.[ ] We Empowered.

Build, Measure, LearnListen, Include, Empower

Build, Measure, LearnListen, Include, Empower

“As designers, we find ourselves not just functioning as human-computer interface designers, but as designers of an interfaceto systems that never saw ‘users’ coming ”– Gretchen Anderson, “Designing for Social Impact”

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”– Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1968

Thank You@beyer_molly @elisymeon

Extra ResourcesBuildwith.Org28Blacks.comCode2040.OrgBlackGirlsCode.comLadiesThatUX.comXXUX.OrgAlterConf.comCreativeReactionLab.comCHI Gender Workshop, 2014