Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational

Gold
Friday, September 9, 2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Share the love for this talk
Drawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
Speakers: Mansi Gupta
Link:

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 claiming to be gender-neutral often produce one-size-fits-men products, ignoring women’s unique needs.

  • Women-centric design can be classified into four modes: offensive, impartial, informed, and holistic, each reflecting increasing levels of inclusivity.

  • The ‘offensive’ mode includes solutions that are patronizing or fail basic usability, like Pinky, a plastic glove for tampon disposal that was too large for women’s hands.

  • Most products fall into the ‘impartial’ category, lacking awareness of biological and societal differences, such as fitness apps ignoring menstruation or snow-clearing policies neglecting women’s caregiving roles.

  • Community and relationality are key non-negotiables in women-centric design; women often prefer learning and problem-solving together rather than top-down approaches.

  • The trust gap women face in systems often stems from systemic failures, not individual deficits like imposter syndrome or risk aversion.

  • Men and boys, while part of the problem, must also be part of the solution in women-centric design to share the responsibility for systemic change.

  • Safety is a fundamental, often overlooked theme; designing for emotional, mental, and physical safety is critical, exemplified by trauma-informed community designs.

  • Non-linearity in women’s lives, such as intermittent workforce participation and time poverty, should inform design in finance, healthcare, and customer service to create better experiences.

  • Ethical concerns around data privacy are acute in women’s health tech, especially in sensitive contexts like ovulation tracking—balancing free services and data security remains unresolved.

Notable Quotes

"In that moment, I looked down at my chest and failed to find a breast pocket of my own."

"Our methodologies today are prone to producing one-size-fits-men outcomes under the guise of being gender-neutral."

"Pink the pink plastic glove was too big for the average woman’s hands."

"Snow clearing policies choose to clear roads before pavements, deeply ignoring responsibilities that are likely to fall on women."

"Women’s empowerment is often glorified but doesn’t necessarily meet their needs beneath the surface."

"Safety is a fundamental human need which is often taken for granted and maybe that’s why it’s forgotten about."

"The trust gap stems from being repeatedly failed by a system, not innate risk aversion or imposter syndrome."

"Men and boys are part of the problem, therefore they must be part of the solution."

"Many ride sharing apps didn’t launch SOS features until after widespread reports of harassment, even though the problem was longstanding."

"I’m dreaming of a world where women-centricity is so ingrained that frameworks like this don’t need to exist anymore."

Ask the Rosenbot
Louis Rosenfeld
Do you want to work on climate? (Climate UX Discussion Series)
2023 • Climate UX Interest Group
Jennifer Fraser
What would Emmy Noether Do? Math, Models and Mulling in UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Robert Fabricant
Industry junctures: Paths forwards for UXR and the critical decisions that get us there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Michael Weir
Mixed Methods and Behavioural Science
2023 • Rosenfeld Community
Jen Cardello
Curating insight: Strategies for integrating knowledge across research functions
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
Theme Three Intro
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Jen Briselli
Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Kayla Farrell
What It's Like To Be a User Researcher at Compass
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Introduction by our Conference Chair
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Brad Peters
Short Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
John Calhoun
Have we Reached Our Peak? Spotting the Next Mountain For DesignOps to Climb
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Nova Wehman-Brown
We've Never Done This Before
2019 • Enterprise Experience 2019
Gold
Simon Wardley
Maps and Topographical Intelligence
2019 • Enterprise Community
Janaki Kumar
Innovate with Purpose
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
GenAI for UXers: A Rosenbot Demo and Discussion
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
John Maeda
Making Sense of Enterprise UX
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold

More Videos

Caroline Vize

"Designers are becoming increasingly interested in doing their own tactical user research within sprint cycles."

Caroline Vize

The State of UX: Five Lessons from 2021 to Accelerate Digital Experience in 2022

March 9, 2022

Kara Kane

"We ran community gatherings with themes, presentations, and breaks, because people needed space to just chat and connect."

Kara Kane

Communities of Practice for Civic Design

April 7, 2022

Jon Fukuda

"We encourage you all to be your own heroes and connect your own documents."

Jon Fukuda Ellie Krysl

Design Planning and Management Support

October 3, 2023

Mark Templeton

"We believe in being a rock band, not rock stars—success comes from the team, not the individual."

Mark Templeton

Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience

June 9, 2017

Jim Kalbach

"Waging peace with sticky notes is a metaphor for how small design tools can contribute to huge social change."

Jim Kalbach

Peace is waged with sticky notes: Mapping Real-World Experiences

June 14, 2018

Scott Stephens

"Excel is a little bit outdated; more advanced cloud tools help us co-create and collaborate in real time."

Scott Stephens

The Next Generation in DesignOps Toolsets

July 28, 2022

Cheryl Platz

"Improv has paid off greatly for us in our professional lives as well."

Cheryl Platz

Collaborative Creativity through Improv

November 7, 2018

Jen Briselli

"Nudge to me now is much more about wiggle it and see what happens rather than expecting exact outcomes."

Jen Briselli

Learning Is The Engine: Designing & Adapting in a World We Can’t Predict

April 16, 2025

Mac Smith

"Leadership growth among UX research is still fairly organic, so we need to learn how to establish ourselves to take leadership roles."

Mac Smith

Measuring Up: Using Product Research for Organizational Impact

March 12, 2021