Reflections on our third equality, diversity and inclusion event — Conversations with Black creatives (the inclusive design) edition
Last year, we decided to start a three-part series of conversations with black creatives to mark the end of Black History Month in October. We held the first edition in November and facilitated a conversation about the role of design in tackling systemic inequalities and in amplifying the voices of black creatives. And then in January, we held the second edition to explore how the planning, design and built environment sectors were exacerbating inequality and injustice. Then lastly in March, we held the last conversation in the series to explore the role of inclusive design and why we need to design products, places and policies which promote equity for all.
Here are some of the highlights:
Ameena M. McConnell, is a Design curator, Inclusion strategist and the Founder of 8PUS DRUM (‘0ctopus DRUM’). Working as an independent curator for more than 15 years her narrative primarily centres on amplifying black design, its knowledge production and how it has always significantly contributed to Britain’s design industry historically and in modern times. Presently, Ameena is consulting with Design Council around inclusion and representation, which lends to her practice as a curator. Learn more — about Ameena’s work as a Design curator.
Julian Thompson, Director of Design + Zaisha Smith, Director of Projects (Rooted by design) on equity-centred design
Julian Thompson and Zaisha Smith run Rooted by Design, a black-led, black-focused social design house whose mission is to reimagine abundant futures with Black communities. They hope to achieve this by designing services and solutions that make a difference, developing an equity-centred practice and creating ways to mobilise and empower Black communities to design solutions on their own terms.
On systemic inequalities…
Zaisha Smith, the Director of projects at Rooted by Design, begins her session by addressing systemic inequalities that have always existed for black people in Britain. For example, the Equality and Human Rights Commission reported that Black workers with degrees earn 23.1 per cent less on average than White workers in Britain. In addition, rates of prosecution and sentencing for Black people are three times higher than for White people. Even, last year it was reported that Black people are four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than their white counterparts because they are more likely to work in frontline roles in the NHS. Sadly, it’s taken Covid and the Black Lives Matter movement to bring conversations about systemic inequalities to the surface but the truth is systemic inequalities has always existed and is not new to us.
So what does inclusive design mean to you?
Zaisha takes on a more critical approach to the word ‘inclusive design’. Inclusive design implies that the dominant culture — those that hold structural power should try to include minorities into their design process. However, “maybe inclusive design should mean how do I include myself in dismantling the barriers that exist so people can be free to create and design their own futures.” — Zaisha Smith. Instead, Zaisha prefers to use the word ‘equity-centered design’. She thinks the design industry should take on a whole new approach of designing with black communities, which takes into consideration our history, our trauma and centres black assets, black identities and black cultures.
To achieve true equity; we need to design more and we need to design differently. There need to be more black voices and more black designers. We need more to achieve equitable outcomes — Zaisha Smith
On dismantling barriers …
Julian Thompson, the Director of Design at Rooted by Design talks about the barriers in place that hinder black communities from thriving and creating their own futures on their own terms. Firstly, we need to be able to see the barriers that are impacting black communities. Barriers such as the absence of trust due to systemic racism or fatigue experienced from being part of a minority group. Secondly, the work on racial inequality is often seen as too hard or too complex. So, how do we get the energy to do this work whilst building a resolve to design with our communities and have the patience to see the change through? All in all, we need to empower communities to design their own futures. However, there’s still so much that needs to happen if we want to see abundant futures for black communities, this includes acknowledging that these cultural barriers, do exist.
“It’s the lack of seeing things through and the lack of investment that has left communities depleted”— Julian Thompson
Natasha Trotman, Equality Designer on embracing the complexities of difference
Natasha Trotman is an artist in residence at Somerset House (Studio 48). She’s also an award-winning equality designer, disability activist and researcher whose work focuses on mental difference, neurodiversity, disability and alternative ways of experiencing spaces and objects. A current committee member of the RSA’s Decolonizing Design Coalition, Natasha’s mission is simply to design better futures for underrepresented groups by infusing her lived experience and broad suite of skills into her practice and beyond.
On mental difference…
Natasha’s unique approach is to infuse her lived experience and varied skills into her practice. She’s not only a designer but she’s also a researcher, a SEN/D practitioner, a neurodivergent woman from a working-class background and she’s from the African diaspora. As a result, she’s able to use her range of skills and experience to address pain points for underrepresented minority groups because “good design enables, bad design disables”. Furthermore, good design is underpinned by inclusivity, equitability and dignity. More importantly, as she puts it she’s able to include “producers of knowledge who are being neglected and designed out”.
“Neurodivergence refers to those who experience and process the world in distinct and unique ways due to neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, learning disabilities, tourette’s, ADHD and adverse childhood experiences” — Natasha Trotman
Dr Makayla Lewis, (Kingston University + Design Council Associate) on participatory design
Makayla is an accomplished visual thinker, illustrator and a sketchnote artist. Her sketches have been featured in three visual thinking books and Adobe Blog. She is also a Lecturer in Computer Science (User Experience Design) for Kingston University and a Design Associate at Design Council. Plus, she has a PhD in human-computer interaction from City University London.
We are not just black…
Makalya kicks off her session on participatory design in a unique way — she did a live sketch of the session. As a lecturer, she engages with students every day and teaches them the importance of User Experience Design but one of the key things she’s most interested in is inclusive design. But she takes on a different approach. Makayla recognises that the design industry takes on a ‘tokenistic’ approach when it comes to engaging with black people. “One thing that design forgets is wanting to engage with people because they are black. We are not just black we are other people as well”. — Dr Makayla Lewis
I am not everyone…
According to Makayla, “Inclusion is not just about ethnicity or the colour of our skin, it’s about what makes and shapes us as humans… inclusion is also about geographies, cultures, economics, age, gender, sexuality, technology, vaccine hesitancy, disability and so on… there’s a lot more to me than just being a black woman in STEM”…
“I am also a DR of Human-Computer Interaction Design
I am a daughter to a parent with cerebral palsy
I am a person raised on welfare
I am a person who was homeless
I am an extremely clinically vulnerable shielder
I am not an expert, why?
Because I am not everyone”— Dr Makayla Lewis
So, now that we know the problem, so what’s the solution? In her own words, it should be about ‘representative storytelling’. We all have stories to tell and we all have blind spots. To demonstrate this, Makayla shared a framework for inclusive design that uses participatory design; the idea of mutual learning and co-designing that allows the designer to sit with the user as experts. A space that allows the user to create their own stories with the support of the researcher. Such techniques include; role-playing, rapid hi-fi prototyping, creative writing and using visual narratives. Makayla’s technique of choice is using comics and visual narratives. The idea is to put a pen into the hands of all users, to enable them to identify all of their blind spots. This method is effective because we are hard-wired to learn from those narratives. By doing this, the researcher/designer is able to tease out stories that are inclusive from producers of knowledge — experts and in a nutshell ‘design for all’. Check out Makayla’s sketchnotes collection on flickr and view her website.
And finally…
Our inclusive design event wrapped up so beautifully with a participatory design masterclass and live sketch by Dr Makayla Lewis, which was visually stimulating. She reminded us that “Inclusion is not just about ethnicity, … it’s about what makes and shapes us as humans”… we simply need to ‘design for all’. Natasha Trotman has shown us that we can use our lived experience to address pain points for underrepresented minority groups. However, both Zaisha Smith and Julian Thompson from Rooted by Design have shown us that we need to go beyond inclusive design, we need to take on more of an equity-centered approach. We need to see and demand true and genuine change instead of just hypervisibility. Julian summed it up so well, “hypervisibility isn’t enough if we are going to remain invisible in boardrooms, invisible on projects and invisible in our ability to shape the future of design.”
Although this is the final of our three events in this series, for those that believe in the movement, you know this is just the beginning. Design Council has used these conversations to collaborate with our colleagues to rewrite our statements around Black Lives Matter and with our new Chief Executive, we’ve used this renewed energy to develop a strengthened statement on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. As Makayla reminds us, we cannot just look at one element of our characteristics, but look at all of them, and design a world that is inclusive for all. Read this statement, and our commitments here, together with a set of organisations and resources that promote equity and inclusive design, in all its forms.
Missed the series? Catch up on all three editions:
- Edition one — on the role of design in tackling systemic inequalities, read our reflections here and watch the recording here.
- Edition two — on the role of the built environment, read our reflections here and watch the recording here.
- Edition three — on inclusive design, watch the recording here.
