Advancing Racial Equity in design
Transforming People, Process, and Product within IBM
Globalization and the Future of Technology
Enter the age of globalization, where technologies are rapidly delivered and experienced across the world’s economies, cultures, and populations. Unfortunately, many companies fail to examine the unique considerations of a globalized world, racial equity being one major component.
“Racial equity is about applying justice and a little bit of common sense to a system that’s been out of balance. When a system is out of balance, people of color feel the impacts most acutely, but, to be clear, an imbalanced system makes all of us pay.” — Glenn Harris, President, Race Forward and Publisher, Colorlines
The Equity Manifesto defines racial equity as “just and fair inclusion into a society in which all people can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.” For companies like IBM, racial equity is essential in order to build an innovative workforce capable of developing offerings that serve a diverse consumer base.
In the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to lead several design initiatives related to advancing racial equity across people, process, and product, with the goal of ensuring that both underserved employees and customers have the opportunity to reach their full potential. The following is a brief summary and reflection of the work to date.
People: Building a Racially Diverse Workforce
The design industry as a profession is pretty homogeneous. For example, the number of Black designers practicing in 2019 was just 3% of the industry total. Therefore, the first and most critical step is to recruit, hire, and retain underrepresented designers. This process is one of the core missions of the IBM Racial Equity in Design initiative, sponsored by Phil Gilbert and operated under the leadership of Nigel Prentice.
In our mission to decolonize design, the team is focused on three key areas, with an initial focus on Black designers: building diverse teams, sponsorship, and designing an inclusive work culture. Furthermore, to help design managers and leadership understand where and how to start, we developed and published a field guide with conversation starters and recommended actions, now accessible online.
Process: Implementing Inclusive Design Practices
“Designing for inclusion starts with recognizing exclusion.” — Kat Holmes, Author of Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design
In order to design product offerings and service experiences that yield equitable outcomes across diverse consumers, it’s important to invite and amplify those perspectives during the design process. Design research, in particular, is an essential practice for learning from the communities who experience the challenges we aim to solve.
As part of the IBM Watson Health Design Justice Initiative, sponsored by Michael Curry and operated alongside several of my design colleagues, we developed a set of guidelines to support teams’ implementation of inclusive research practices. For example:
- Inclusive Planning. Invite diverse research participants to help scope your research agenda, problem statements, and research questions.
- Racial Equity Benchmarks. Use screening criteria to overrepresent individuals from traditionally underrepresented communities, such as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC).
- Participatory Analysis. Bring in multiple perspectives and experts in data analysis in order to better understand how various contexts of racial and ethnic identity influence outcomes.
The full guide is now accessible online.
Product: Designing Equitable Experiences
Lastly, in light of designing a more equitable future, our efforts will naturally extend to a third pillar: the design of our products and services. In other words, how might we integrate the concept of racial empathy into the experiences we design? And how can we ensure our globally diverse customers feel acknowledged, included, and even empowered? Failure to consider an equity-centered approach in the design of global technologies can have disastrous consequences (see: racial bias in medical algorithms), leading to discriminatory outcomes and general mistrust.
This is the goal behind the Enterprise Design for Racial Equity Assessment, a checklist developed by a team of IBMers across business units to encourage self-reflection and raise awareness among product teams on how to be more inclusive, mindful, and considerate of customers who use our offerings across the following areas.
Digital Product Design
- People-first Language. Is people-first language used throughout the product, avoiding racial stereotypes? For example, referring to people (“Black people”) and not strictly to their skin color (“Blacks”).
- Diverse Visual Representation. Are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities adequately (and appropriately) represented in the photography and illustrations used throughout the product, avoiding racial stereotypes?
- Inclusive Interactions. Do the interactions within the product demonstrate usability across global, diverse audiences? For example, accounting for cross-cultural differences in reading directions.
Design for Data Visualization
- Data Labeling. Are data labeled in a way that avoids reinforcing racial stereotypes? For example, acknowledging and naming groups that are not included (or represented in smaller groups) instead of using exclusionary terms, such as “other.”
- Data Presentation. Does the product employ charts and graphics that thoughtfully and respectfully reflect the communities the data represents?
Design for Artificial Intelligence
- Data Sourcing. Are the data used heavily reviewed and critiqued, with internal advocacy to increase representation from underrepresented racial minority groups?
- Insights and Recommendations. Are algorithmic decisions fair and valid, eliminating discriminatory or unjust outcomes?
- Feedback Loop. Does the product include communication channels for feedback and input that allow reporting on racial biases and inaccuracies?
Looking Forward
Overall, I’ve been strengthened and energized by the work IBM has completed to date and am inspired by the road that lies ahead. The future is full of wonder, extending far beyond the current challenges of inequity, with the next generation of diverse design leaders fearlessly leading the way.
Acknowledgements
It takes a village. As such, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the IBMers who have contributed their time, leadership, expertise, and feedback in order to progress the initiatives listed above (listed alphabetically):
Adam Cutler, Adria Spivack, Alisha Moore, Andrea Barbarin, Andrew Friendenthal, Barbara Hayes, Bola Oyedijo, Bradley Neal, Candyce Jessamy, Cherese Cooper, Christina Ku, Doug Powell, Elizabeth Hickey, Frances DiMare Dailey, Herman Colquhoun, Irena Martinez, Irene Dankwa-Mullan, Irina Lubenskaya, January Holmes, Jessica Tremblay, Jodi Cutler, Joelle Williams, Kareem Yusuf, Laura Chen, Michael Curry, Michael Muller, Morgan Foreman, Nigel Prentice, Renee Albert, Robert Pierce, Roosevelt Faulkner, Will Scott, Xindeling Pan, Zena Washington.
Raven L. Veal, PhD is a Design Researcher at IBM based in Austin, Texas. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.
