I was sitting outside a cabin in Northern Wisconsin, reading an article on my phone as my legs dangled off the pier into the cold water. The article, titled "The deadly truth about a world built for men” discussed a wide range of everyday designs that had forgotten about women. I remember this moment specifically because that article fundamentally changed my perspective on the world of design and the impact it has. I remember running my feet through the water as I read in shock about how cars were designed only for men. I learned how no one designed a female crash test dummy, and because of this women are statistically more likely to die or be injured in car crashes. These designers left out 50% of the population in their design and the result has dire consequences. That day in Northern Wisconsin, I began to reflect on the importance of the equality, diversity, empowerment and accessibility of design.

‍Equality and Diversity. I believe that we as designers should be consistently and consciously including all people in
our designs. We should be actively working to amplify the voices of minority and underrepresented groups. We must seek to have a diverse team surrounding us, equal representation in images and icons used, and demographics in research and testing methods that are reflective of our society. We can’t make the same mistake that the article discussed - we must include all users that will be using our product in the design process. As designers, we can design for all by including those historically excluded groups. We must recognize the power we hold and use it for good.

‍Designing to Empower. When we as designers aim to foster equality and diversity through our process and prototypes, we are empowering our users. Empowering users gives the power back to those excluded groups, building them up to also be advocates. We must consider that sometimes empowerment comes not in the form of solving the problem for the user but giving the user the tools to solve the problem themselves. We aim to give voices to our users through the products we create so that they can take it and run.

‍Accessible Design. I believe that designs should always be created so that people of all abilities and capabilities can access them. This approach includes reviewing our designs against accessibility guidelines and standards when creating them. More importantly, this means including these users in the design process when creating the product. Accessibility is inclusivity, and it ends up benefiting everyone. In the book Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, Kat Holmes states that “when we design for accessibility, it ends up benefiting a much broader group of people.” One example used is building ramps on curbs, which benefits people with physical disabilities to be able to move more easily. However, these ramps end up benefiting the elderly, those on bikes and skateboards, children those with visual impairment, those pushing a stroller and more.

It was a lazy Friday night as I sat on the couch, clicking through the channels on TV trying to find something to watch. As I channel surfed, a 20/20 special called “Falling from the Sky” caught my eye. I stopped to watch and what I learned pivoted my perspective on design (once again). This program covered the Boeing 737-Max disaster, where two Boeing planes crashed and killed everyone on the flights. These crashes were a result of a poorly designed flight control system called MCAS. In an rushed attempt to roll out a new plane to rival Airbus, Boeing failed to slow down and take the time to think through the design of MCAS. They followed a very linear design process from creation to production to implementation. MCAS only required one error before it would override the pilot and take control of the plane, forcing the nose of the plane down. The primary issue with the design was that this system did not have a secondary checking system to ensure accuracy. If there was a singular defective sensor, MCAS would override the pilot. In the cases of the two crashes, the sensor had a bad reading and the system took over. Once again, I was shocked by the fact that no one took the time to sufficiently test the plane or consider the safety implications of the new design.

At this point in my design experience, my projects consisted of “safe” class projects that allowed me to fail and learn without consequences. What I learned about the Boeing 737-Max disaster led me to understand how design work can have huge implications, even life and death consequences. I learned how important it is to always be critical of our designs, because if just one person had revisited the MCAS system design to critique it, this tragedy may not have happened. Lastly, I saw the importance of testing designs and trying to break the solution.

‍Be Critical. In Chapter 15 of The Design Way, Harold G. Nelson and Erik Stolterman discuss how designers are unable to approach a design problem with fresh eyes more than once. It is easy for designers to get attached to their ideas after putting so much work into them. It is also easy to sit on autopilot (little plane pun here) and go through the motions of the design process. As designers, we need to be critical of our designs, seek feedback from third parties and be continuously working to “break” our designs. We should be trying to find holes in the solution we have created so that we can keep improving the design. If we grow complacent or try to push for our ideas without critical input from our stakeholders, there can be huge implications such as the Boeing incident. We should always avoid placing our own agenda before the needs of our users, who should be the focus of every product we create.

‍Always be Learning. Also in the book The Design Way, Nelson and Stolterman emphasize the importance of “self-directed and continuous learning”. The book says that “learning to become a designer entails learning how to be a learner as well as absorbing what a designer needs to know in order to practice design (P. 22)”. Alongside our expertise in the field comes the mindset of being a constant learner. As designers, we are constantly surrounded by people who can teach us things. Our users know more about what they need than we do, and we must be willing to listen with open minds to what they have to say. We should also be working to stay up to date on trends, changing emerging technology, and best practices. Continuous learning means learning from those around us and constantly learning more about our field.

‍Design is not Linear. Throughout my design education, I have developed a toolbox of methods and approaches that I can utilize when working on a project. I believe that the design process changes depending on the needs of the project and the users for each specific case. Design should not be a standardized, one-size-fits-all, linear process that we apply to each situation. Instead, we designers should be open to adjusting our process for each unique case. My professors introduced the book Universal Methods of Design by Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington to me early on in my UX education. This book has been a great resource to provide me with different methods that I can use depending on the goals for the project. My professors also instilled in me that design is messy, usually demonstrated by drawing a big squiggly blob on the whiteboard instead of a straight line. Design is not linear, but we can use methods and approaches to create meaning from the mess!

Reading that article that day by the lake in Northern Wisconsin and watching the TV program on the Boeing 737-Max helped shape my design outlook and philosophy to be where it is. I as a designer stand for equality and diversity, the empowerment of users, and creating accessible designs. I am constantly working on being critical of my work and being a continuous learner. I know it is important to seek feedback from all people that will be potentially using the product. I believe that the design process is not linear but an iterative ongoing effort to design the best product for all users.