Perceptions of the Design Process:
An Examination of Gendered Aspects of
New Product Development
Catherine Newman
Marisa Bauer
Alice M. Agogino
Jennifer Mankoff
Inspiration
• "As women rightly take
their place as half the
creators, technology will
find its positive and
peaceful impact on the
future.” – Anita Borg
Institute of Women and Technology
• IWT Mission:
– To increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology.
– To increase the positive impact of technology on the lives of the world's
women.
– To help communities, industry, education and governments benefit from these
increases.
• Support from IWT’s Virtual Development Center and Innovation
Workshop
Course Background
• ME39D: Designing Technology for Girls and Women (S ‘03)
• 12 Students (10 female, 2 male, 6 tech, 6 non-tech, all
freshman or sophomores)
• Students worked with community to tackle solutions to
crucial societal problems that effect girls and women
• Course Topics:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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New Product Development Process
Human-Centered User Interfaces
Industrial Design
Customer Voice, Needs & Contextual Inquiry
Concept Generation, Selection & Evaluation Methods
Building Low and High Fidelity Prototypes
Design for Manufacture
Green Design
Usability & Accessible Design
Assessment & Research Questions
•
This course was established to explore the question:
– Should there be special design rules for women and girls or is design
that considers girls and women as users just good design?
•
Our evaluation of the course looked at the following
questions:
1. Did this class result in the students believing that designing
technology for traditionally underrepresented populations such as
women is included in ‘good design’?
2. Did this class result in the students believing that technology can and
should serve a broad and diverse population?
3. Did this class result in women in the class being more inclined to
work in technology and/or technology-related design?
Research Methods
•
•
•
•
•
Questionnaires (pre/post semester)
Interviews
Review of Course Materials
Evaluation of Group Projects
Evaluation of Student’s Vision of the Design Process
(pre/post semester)
Results:
Perceptions of Gender in the Design Process
1.
Did this class result in the students believing that designing technology
for traditionally underrepresented populations such as women is included
in good design?
•
Students felt that women must be included without excluding
men
– 2 of 3 groups choose target groups with girls and boys (project
selection)
•
Students felt that when underrepresented users were included
in ‘good’ design everyone benefited and that a lack of
diversity compromised quality
– “[gender] balanced classes seem livelier and more open to diverse
perspectives” – interview with male student
– “I have come to learn that good technology is something that is
accessible to all, no matter the age, sex, background of the user and
his/her level of expertise/experience with technology” – interview
with female student
View of Design Process:
– Semester Start
•
•
•
• Sense that designing for
girls/women was different than
designing for boys/men.
Naive view of the
design process.
Almost no customer
feedback in the
design process.
Linear or
‘production line’
view of the design
process.
View of Design Process:
– Semester End
•
•
•
“Observe the community in action . . .”
“Have community members work with
low fidelity prototypes . . . Use the
“think-aloud’ method”
“my station is designed to make my
audience members forget these lines that
have been traditionally drawn along
gender lines, and to appreciate
individual differences between people,
rather than between the sexes.
•
•
•
•
More sophisticated understanding of
design process.
Views show customer feedback and
gender equity considerations
throughout design process.
Early product feedback with a range
of low & high fidelity prototypes.
Design viewed as an iterative
process.
Results:
Perceptions of Who Technology Should Serve
2. Did this class result in the students believing that technology can
and should serve a broad and diverse population?
•
Students believed that technology can and should serve
underrepresented populations
– “Video Game Designs by Girls and Boys,” Y.B.Kafai
– Class lectures and readings exposed students to design case studies
supporting this conclusion
•
Group-work gave students first-hand experience of
technology serving (or not serving) underrepresented
minorities
– Lessons learned from group assignment on customer observations.
Results:
Perceptions of Working in a Technological Field
3. Did this class result in women in the class being more inclined to work in
technology and/or technology-related design?
I would be comfortable within a career in a technical field.
• No substantial shift in students’ interest in
switching majors.
6
Pre-Questionnaire
Post-Questionnaire
5
• Interested in working in technology on
design level.
4
3
“I am more inclined to work in a technological
field because I realized that the technological
world requires a lot of input that is often nontechnical in nature.”
2
1
0
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
• I am comfortable using technology.
100%
90%
80%
70%
Strongly Disagree
60%
Disagree
50%
Agree
40%
Strongly Agree
30%
20%
10%
0%
FED - W omen
FED - Men
E39D
– E39 women moved from 3.27 (pre-test) to
3.64 (post-test). 56% responded “Strongly
Agreed” in post-test.
– Only 16% of women Freshmen
Engineering Design students (FED),
‘Strongly Agreed’ with statement as
compared to 47% for men. 31% of FED
women “disagreed” with statement.
Conclusions & Future Work
Conclusions
• Students believed ‘good design’ doesn’t require special rules for
girls and women.
• Students learned that technology can and should serve
underrepresented populations.
• Female students became more inclined to work in design, but
not necessarily technology.
• IWT mission helped to define course goals and the course helped
validate IWT mission.
– University, students, community work well in conjunction
Future Work
• Investigate discrepancy in confidence levels of female FED
students, compared to male FED students and E39 women.
Acknowledgements & More Info
• Dr. Anita Borg and the
Institute of Women and
Technology.
• NSF Gender Equity
supplement to NEEDS
educational digital library
at: www.needs.org.
• Course website at:
http://best.me.berkeley.edu/
~aagogino/e39d/index.html
Anita Borg Celebration: On Sep.
9th, 2003 at Stanford Memorial
Auditorium visionaries and leaders from
high technology, business, government,
and education will join for a daylong
event honoring the life Dr. Anita Borg.