Designing for Women — Why it is important for women to be involved
So many issues affect women in society regardless of where we are geographically.
What happens when you invite women in one room and set them up to brainstorm issues that affect them in society while discussing how they can design solutions to these issues?
User Centered Design is an approach that focuses on the user and the design process requires a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use a product, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regard to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users.
A lot of the designing process we did was about brainstorming ideas on issues concerning women in society. How are women treated in the media industry? What about the women in technology and the workplace? What about women in the economic sector? Are they allowed to own land? What issues are affecting women in governance? What about issues around women and their family expectations?
A lot of women who are passionate about issues above and came out and had a great brainstorming session. When you are not involved in this process, you do not realize the underlying issues affecting women.
I was for instance surprised that in the Eastern part of Uganda, majority of women work while the men sit back and wait for the women to bring the money home so they can go drink alcohol. What can be done to protect the woman’s finances in such a scenario? Why should a woman’s hard earned income be wasted on matters that do not advance the family?
Women at the workplace also face a lot of issues from stereotypes to being side-lined because of their gender. A lot of discussions also focused on what the role of a woman is in bringing these stereotypes on themselves.
Are women stepping up to say we know we have the potential and we will do whatever it takes to claim our rightful positions? Is culture playing a major role in enforcing the stereotypes in terms of what a man should do and what a woman shouldn’t do professionally?
The brainstorm process saw a lot of great ideas on this matter resulting to one of the groups designing a solution that would change the cultural aspect of how young girls and boys are sub-consciously guided into what they can or can not do because of their gender.
The solution would include a series of animations that show the process of what an ideal world would be if there were no rules. Imagine if we had no color codes — blue for boys, pink for girls! Imagine if boys and girls would be allowed to choose their own games to play with. Imagine if decisions right from birth were left for these children to decide, how would the world look like?
The beauty of involving women in the design process is because women know the issues they face in society and therefore are able to map out what solutions they believe can impact the lives of other women in a positive way.
