The impact of gender-inclusive methods on design decision making

Abstract

Many assumptions regarding gender biases in design have been raised in recent decades, such as that gender stereotypes can be ingrained in products and services (Akrich, 1992; van Oost, 2003) and that the gender imbalance in technology affects design solutions (Fountain, 2000; Wajcman, 2000). To explore the influence of gender on technology development it was necessary to understand whether there are differences in decisions taken by women and men in the design process that could support such claims. In a previous study with computer science students (Lopes & Vogel, 2020) we used two gender-inclusive methods for designing the user experience (UX) to assess the effect on decision making. Here we used the same methods with design students. Similarly to the first study, some statistical gender differences were disclosed. However, it also revealed that the absence of gender was mostly unnoticed, indicating the feasibility of using gender-inclusive UX methods to address gender fluidity to the design process.