Summary
DesignOps practitioners have helped advocate for inclusive design practices over the past several years. Still, key women-centric barriers persist such as safe access, time poverty, and female biological differences. To meet women’s needs, our design methodologies must ensure an inclusive lens from the start. In her talk, Mansi will share how DesignOps can engage their teams in embedding applicable insights, drawn from feminist practice, into their existing processes and toolkits. Attendees will leave with tools to: Learn from non-design disciplines Identify how our current methodologies overlook women Apply key design principles to create using a women-centric lens
Key Insights
-
•
Design methodologies often forget about women, leading to systemic biases across technology, finance, and healthcare.
-
•
Gender-neutral designs frequently cater to male experiences, resulting in one-size-fits-all solutions that exclude women's needs.
-
•
Women's lives are non-linear, yet many services fail to accommodate the unique challenges women face in their careers and personal lives.
-
•
Community and relationality play a crucial role in women's experiences; effective designs should leverage these social bonds.
-
•
Safety, both emotional and physical, is a fundamental need that is frequently overlooked in design processes.
-
•
Trust must be rebuilt in systems that have historically failed women, particularly in finance and healthcare.
-
•
Women experience higher degrees of time poverty due to societal roles; designs should account for this disparity.
-
•
Historical context and existing gender norms need to be challenged and redefined in product offerings for women.
-
•
Involvement of men is essential to address gender equity issues and to foster a collective responsibility towards change.
-
•
An open-source framework aimed at increasing access to gender-focused design is being developed to encourage further innovation.
Notable Quotes
"We forget about women a lot in technology, finance, and healthcare."
"Our design methodologies often produce one-size-fits-man outcomes."
"When we start every project by asking 'What about women?', new possibilities emerge."
"Engaging with a women's centric lens can transform how we approach design."
"Safety is often taken for granted, but it is crucial for women's access to services."
"Many women's experiences are discounted in traditional designs, leading to inadequate solutions."
"The role of community is vital; women thrive on learning together and supporting each other."
"Women's lives are not linear, and our designs should reflect that complexity."
"If we see men and boys as part of the problem, they must also be part of the solution."
"The ultimate goal is a world where women's centricity is ingrained in design methodologies, making such frameworks unnecessary."
More Videos
"Innovators can listen to what is unsaid."
John MaedaMaking Sense of Enterprise UX
June 9, 2016
"Demographics don’t cause thinking; they can exacerbate discrimination, but for everything else, they've lost context."
Indi YoungThinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
January 8, 2025
"Rapid experimentation leads to insights, which in turn fuel innovation."
Chris ChapoData Science and Design: A Tale of Two Tribes
May 13, 2015
"This unusual tool started to raise the use of productivity-oriented tools."
Elizabeth ChurchillExploring Cadence: You, Your Team, and Your Enterprise
June 8, 2017
"We faced challenges as individuals like human connections and networking."
Rusha SopariwalaRemote, Together: Craft and Collaboration Across Disciplines, Borders, Time Zones, and a Design Org of 170+
June 9, 2022
"Design is like rocket fuel to anything we attach ourselves to, especially technology."
George AyeThat Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
November 16, 2022
"Creating space for us to name the things we were experiencing allows us to unload some emotional weight."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"Being a design educator rather than just a designer helps teams collaborate effectively."
Julie Gitlin Esther RaiceDesign as an Agent of Digital Transformation at JPMC
June 9, 2021
"We should help our users follow a process and understand what could be useful for us and why."
Matteo GrattonCan Data and Ethics Live Together?
October 1, 2021
