Why there only few woman who work in tech industry? That’s question appear when we notice there are fewer woman than man in our developer academy. We want to know the reason why there is gap between total of man and woman in tech industry. We are worried if there are some problems or wrong perspectives that make women not interested in technology industry..

We did study literature and deep interview method for our research. Study literature for validate how many woman work in tech industry and deep interview have a purpose to get deeper insight and analyse pain point that felt by women who work in tech industry or woman who has interest in tech industry.

We interviewed several woman who currently working in tech industry and community that empowering woman in tech. That communities are Generations Girls (Anbita Nadine Siregar dan Vania Afitri) dan Girls in Tech Indonesia (Nadinia Putra).

After we research, we analysed and categorised findings that we get.

• Yes, there’s only few woman in tech industry, even in one of Indonesian unicorn company, only 10% women work in their tech division;
• For girls (high school graduates) who are interested in technology, they feel a lack of information about careers or education in the tech industry;
• There are still myth in society if tech industry only for men (in Indoneia);
• There is no clear path for them to learn technology skills to support their careers.

After analysing and classifying the findings we got, we set our goals to clarify what we want to achieve in order to solve existing problems. Our goal is empowering women who interest in tech industry with inspiring each other for grow their confidence. So we analysed what should we do to reach our goal and what shouldn’t we do to prevent deviating from our goal.

Do

• Make women feel more confident when they choose study or work in tech industry. Why? We understand how difficult it is for them when they feel not confident after deciding to join the tech industry for several reasons like what we mentioned earlier in our findings;
• Making clear information about technical and soft skills to support their education or career. Why? feeling confuse is really frustrating for everyone, we realise they have interest in tech industry but they need help to reach their goals.

Don’t

• Forcing women to join the technology industry. Why? life is freedom, everyone has right to be whoever they want to be, we only help women who have interest in technology and show them that they can study and work in the technology industry;
• Creating a course platform only for women. Why? Skills are very important and there are already many courses or communities to help improve skills, so we bridge them to get courses or connects with communities that are suitable for them.

After determining our goals, we began designing applications with several features that could solve existing problems.

• Introducing women who working in tech industry as their inspiration and become their role model. Why? As mentioned in Microsoft Research, women need their role models to feel inspired, grow their confidence for achieve their dreams in tech industry;

“Girls who know a woman in a STEM profession are substantially more likely to feel empowered when they engage in STEM activities than those who don’t know a woman in a STEM profession.” — Microsoft, Closing The STEM Gap

• Making clear path to reach their goal in tech industry. Why?Information is very important when we decide everything, unfortunately there are still many women who are confused about how to improve their technical skills due to lack of information. When they get clear information, they not only find it easier to improve their skills but can also foster their confidence;

• Inspiring woman and bring together other women who have the same goals. Why? People need some inspiration to help open their mind, share their experience, get connection, and the most important thing is make them not feel being alone;

• Everyone can inspire others. Why? You don’t need to be CEO of tech industry or leader in your company to inspire other. You can be a role model for people around you, you can be a student who share skills with classmate, a housewife who learn and make simple app in their home. It’s not about just get inspired, everyone can inspiring and share their skill to others. So every content in the application will be made by women who want to share their experiences in the tech industry.

We tested our prototype for woman who has interest in tech industry. Age of tester between 20 and 28 years, because in that range, they usually choose their majors or prepare their career paths. We did testing with give them high-fidelity prototype and let them interacting without any interruptions. After they complete task, we ask them to tell story about application, about application purpose, what the application can do or can’t do.

• User can clearly understand application that are tested is an application for women who have an interest in tech industry;
• Users can tell the purpose of the application is to inspire and empower women who have an interest in the technology industry;
• User can describe every features of the application without missing, but the “Path” is always said in the last order.

After we test to user and get feedback from our mentor and people who outside from development, we did redesign application to improve user experience.

What change?

• We changed “Home” to “Discover”, Why? We want to make clear label, “what is home?”, “what function of home?”, “Is home same with dashboard?”. We don’t want user think when they see it. Discover is clear label and describe the whole feature in that tab;

• We want to make “Path” as one of main feature, Why? because based on research, clear path is very important for woman who want to learn about tech industry, so we make as tab menu;

• Event and article in same tab, Why? When user need inspiration, everything in one place, this will make user easier to access posts and articles in one tab.

Conclution

There’s so huge gap between number of man and woman in tech industry and also development of tech industry grow rapidly every year. All of these conditions allow more women to enter the tech industry. Our application have big potential to empower woman who has interest to tech industry and make sure they are not just ready for technical knowledge, but they’re ready mentally especially their confidence.

We gave our application’s name is Rolia from word “Role-model”. We hope that more and more role models of woman in tech industry can share with each other. We will continue to redesign and develop Rolia to be available immediately for accompany every woman out there who is interested in technology.

This project developed by:

Adi Sukarno — Soft Engineer

Afina Vinci — Soft Engineer

Brian Kusuma — Business Analys

Otto Gozali — Soft Engineer

Sulistiyo Raharjo — UX Researcher & Designer

If you want to know more about Rolia, just email us, don’t forget give us feedback, clap, comment and share.

my email: sulistiyotr@icloud.com