9. Making technology gender inclusive Flashcards
Why are some people left out by technology? (5)
Accessibility barriers
Financial inequality
Difficult to reach populations
Design biases
Language/ culture exclusion
What creates gender design bias? (3)
Devs and designers create for people who share their own experiences, meaning that they overlook needs of people not in these groups.
Most tech teams and mostly male so this results in creating tech that works for men.
Assumptions about genders are perpetuated.
What is gender identity?
Gender identity is not binary, it’s a spectrum.
Gender identity can’t be assumed based on anatomy, appearance or social norms.
What is Gender Mag (GM)?
GM is a type of inclusive design used to make technology more usable to people of all genders
Why learn about Gender Mag? (6)
Design inclusive technology to support gender based cognitive differences
What are the key concepts and methods of Gender Mag? (3)
GM Facets
GM Personas
GM Methods (Walkthrough and Heuristic evaluation)
What are the 5 GM facets?
The facets reflect how gender differences in cognitive styles and problem-solving strategies impact how we interact with technology:
Motivation - women use tech to carry out a task, men use tech out of enjoyment
Information processing - women gather info comprehensively, men follow leads and backtrack
Self efficacy - men have more confidence and perseverance
Risk aversion - Women are more risk adverse
Learning style - Women are less likely to (‘tinker’) with new features
Who are the 3 GM personas?
Abi (facets associated with woman)
Pat (in between)
Tim (facets associated with men)
They are eachmulti-personas: They can be different ages, races, genders, pronouns
What is the purpose of the 3 GM personas?
Creating technology that works well for Abi, Pat, and Tim will result in technology that’s better forallusers
What are the 2 GM methods?
Walkthrough or “The GM Method” - A step-by-step process involving “walking through” a technology design as one of the personas to detect what issues they might encounter.
Heuristic evaluation: A faster, “cheaper” evaluation method. Involves checking whether a technology design meets design guidelines created to support the personas.
What are the steps of a GM Walkthrough? (5)
- Choose the technology and use case to evaluate
- Form your GM evaluation team (3 - 5 people ideally)
- Choose a persona and customise it based on user research
- Evaluate - subgoals, does persona achieve, does persona know, document
- Prioritise issues - Count no/maybe, gender vs usability, brainstorm
