Remember you’re always excluding people (from usability tests, interviews, co-design workshops, etc.), so you can be conscious about who you are excluding and ask ‘Who are we missing?’. – Kat Holmes in Mismatch, Tatiana Mac, Benjamin Evans
Also consider the power relations in the social/service/system design process, by looking at your own privileges and who gets to be present, decide the design goal, decide what is ‘normal’ in the group, and what role different stakeholders have. – Maya Goodwill in her A Social Designer’s Field Guide to Power Literacy
Language
Be conscious of the language you use in your products, with regards to the
language of choice (e.g. when designing something for the geographical area of The Netherlands, Dutch is an obvious choice, but also adding English, Arabic, French, etc. will make it more accessible)
Make your design system as accessible as possible, so the teams using the components and patterns can focus on the harder problems. – Nick Colley
Remember that the WCAG is a minimum requirement to meet and does not guarantee a great user experience. Testing with people who use assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers) is important to make your product more accessible. – Hidde de Vries
Miscellaneous
Realize that exclusionary atoms in a design system will lead to an exclusionary society through some steps in between, but also the other way around: inclusive atoms lead to a more inclusive society, plus the existing exclusionary aspects of society can trickle into the product if you’re not resisting it relentlessly. – Tatiana Mac
When something ends up being exclusionary despite your best efforts, apologize properly, by 1. not centring yourself, 2. apologising for the impact, 3. making a plan to fix, 4. remember it for next time and 5. pay the knowledge forward. – Tatiana Mac
Try to collect as little data as possible, for both privacy reasons and to prevent excluding people in the way you collect or act upon this data. – Tatiana Mac
Algorithms
Beware that human biases can transfer into the data sets and algorithms when using machine learning. So, fight the notion that machines are objective and make sure the creators of the data sets and algorithms you implement/hire are working inclusively, too. – Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble in Algorithms of Oppression; Sennay Ghebreab at Wetenschapsagenda, NL
Digital inclusion
Understand that not everyone has continuous access to stable and fast internet, a personal device with a large screen, and the skills and motivation to use digital products. So, design for offline use, low bandwidths, small screens, shared device usage, privacy, and security. Additionally, make sure the digital interaction is not the only way to achieve something, but also offer channels like phone calls or face-to-face meetings. – Alliantie Digitaal Samenleven
More resources
Methodology
Equity-Centered Community Design “is a unique creative problem solving process based on equity, humility-building, integrating history and healing practices, addressing power dynamics, and co-creating with the community” by Creative Reaction Lab.
System of Systems is a talk by Tatiana Mac linking design systems to societal systems and showing how problems in the one perpetuate those in the other and vice versa. And showing some remnants of the system of slavery in current society. In Building socially inclusive design systems she translates it into a more actionable form.
Invisible Women is an episode of 99% Invisible, discussing the lack of data on the female population, resulting in more injuries and deaths, worse healthcare, low adoption rates for new products, among other things.
Race After Technology is a book about social inequity in, or as a cause of, technology, by Ruha Benjamin, an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University.
Language
Conscious Style Guide is a collection of resources about being conscious of your language use. Zapier wrote an article about the collection and how to get started with making your language more conscious.
Accessibility
BLIND ABROAD is a website from the Legally Blind filmmaker, James Rath, featuring blogs, podcasts, a film and his YouTube channel, about travelling and experiencing technology while being blind.
[NL] Inclusie - Ontwerp voor iedereen is a toolkit for designing inclusively, looking at different target audiences like immigrants, low-literate people, elderly, etc.
Ideas42 is “a non-profit that uses insights from behavioral science to improve lives, build better systems and policies, and drive social change” who also focusses on equitable justice, with a diverse team.
IDEO Amplify is a project using human centered design methods in ‘international development’ and also has a diverse team.
Design As Protest is a group of “Anti-Racist designers dedicated to Design Justice in the built environment”
Stalled! is an initiative facilitating “the need to create safe, sustainable and inclusive public restrooms for everyone regardless of age, gender, race, religion and disability”
The Hair Chart is an episode of 99% Invisible in collaboration with The Stoop, “a podcast hosted by Leila Day and Hana Baba, which features stories from across the black diaspora.” It handles the history behind criticism of a hair chart. They also have an episode on that themselves.
WePresent showcases work from creatives, including (graphic) design, saying “Diversity is at the center of what we do.” (and following up on that in their selection).
Maru is an anti-harassment chatbot by Feminist Internet and Plan International, focussed on providing advice & resources from global experts & activists on how to tackle online abuse
