⚙️ a research and ideation framework
Rooted in extensive research and dialogue with gender practitioners, these are a set of recurring themes most useful for research and ideation phases. Where the Women-Centric Eye helps identify opportunity areas, the non-negotiables help design solutions for them.
Each non-negotiable comes with a set of insights, questions, examples and a design consideration to enrich your research materials and ideation sessions.
Although safety is fundamental need, it is often an afterthought in design, compromising women’s sense of security. Unsafe spaces increase anxiety and discomfort, thereby limiting women's engagement and access to resources. Conversely, safe spaces foster trust, generosity, reciprocity and well-being. Yet, safety is so often considered reactively.
<aside> 💡 Design Consideration: Build physical and psychological safety proactively rather than reactively.
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Non-linearity in women's lives, created by biological differences and gendered responsibilities, leads them to shoulder more invisible costs. Maternity leave, for example, or additional caregiving responsibilities throughout the day makes women's workplace experience less linear. Design that assumes a linear path leads to time poverty, additional labour, and monetary as well as other costs for women, thereby exacerbating invisible penalties.
<aside> 💡 Design Consideration: Build for non-linear lives that frequently experience costs and penalties resulting from biological and gendered differences.
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Neuroscientist Mallory Feldman says that "when you move through a world that isn't designed for you, you learn that you do not matter." This leads to what are often seen as 'innate' characteristics of women such as a 'lack of confidence.' In reality, this is an outcome of women having to navigate a systemically unequal world—leading them to internalise failure as personal fault, attributing success to external factors and experiencing a breach of trust both with themselves and the systems around them.
<aside> 💡 Design Consideration: Build trust by reframing internal and external confidence gaps as areas to improve the product, service and system.
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Women have come together over common purpose and collective struggle for a long time. Although community and relationality has also been used to take advantage of women, when used to increase women’s success, community plays a huge role in building safety and trust for women.
<aside> 💡 Design Consideration: Build learning opportunities by harnessing the power of trusted relationships and community.
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