The Power of Women-Centric User Experiences

Session Type

Focus Talk

Timing

Thursday

3 Nov

at

11:30

Room

Main stage

About the Session

Uber rolled out SOS functionality only after there were sexual harassment cases reported on their rides. Fitness apps continue to ignore menstruation, menopause, and pregnancy. Pension funds, failing to acknowledge that women live longer, have contributed to financial inequities. If these products and services had dared to ask: what about women?, they would have designed for safety, non-linearity, lifecycle and other key needs of women that are consistently overlooked – and can create an improved experience for all.

As women continue to navigate a world built for men, design exacerbates these disparities—research shows that under the guise of being “genderless,” our current design methodologies overlook key needs of women, continuing to produce one-size-fits-men outcomes. As a seasoned women-centric behavioural design lead, Mansi observed first-hand that projects across domain, culture and geography often run into similar unique barriers that specifically women experience—but these barriers continue to remain unaddressed. Design can play a role in changing this. Practitioners that design with a women-first lens all agree on one thing: when you design for women, you have a much higher chance of designing for everyone.

In this talk, Mansi will share “Design for Women,” a culmination of key themes, design principles, and tools emerging from deep research with feminist practitioners. In sharing how we might embed some of these findings into our design processes, Mansi will show how a women-centric lens has the power to create inclusive user experiences — especially if designers choose to learn from non-design disciplines that have always put marginalised groups at the centre of their program design.

About the Speaker

Mansi Gupta

Founder at Unconform

As the founder of Unconform, Mansi partners with organisations to help them incorporate a women-centric design lens across products, programs and processes. She is the creator of Design for Women – a methodology focused on intentionally and actively designing for women; the author of Unconforming, a newsletter advancing dialogue at the intersection of women and design; and the curator of Design for Women Conversations, a monthly event series bringing together gender and design practitioners.

Mansi has 10+ years of experience applying behavioural research & design strategy in social impact. Previously, she led projects at Women’s World Banking to increase financial inclusion among lower-income women in developing nations. Prior to that, she designed games to research reproductive healthcare in rural India as a designer for Final Mile Consulting. Mansi holds a BA in Computer Science & Economics from Bryn Mawr College, and an MFA in Products of Design from the School of Visual Arts. She grew up in India, and is now based in Amsterdam.

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