The problem with gender-blind design and how we might begin to address it

Gender-blind design hinges upon an assumption that designing equally is the same as designing for equality. That, however, is inaccurate, as gender-blindness is merely a synonym for neutrality. Neutrality, because it lacks a concerted effort to subvert, favors hegemonic values and epistemologies, which counters the purported aim of equality. Supposedly objective methods of analysis, such as data gathering and interpreting, are not deprived of this hegemonic bias either. As such, through an acknowledgment of ethics, the designer must recognize that they are, indeed, imbuing their values into their designs, which bears influence on the ways in which the user interacts and interprets those designs, a notion which is especially relevant to a field concerned with user experience. This may be done deliberately or by accident, but it is always inevitable. Ethics is, in this way, inextricable from the design process, and, thus, the present article aims to propose that designing for equality requires the designer to act as an ethical agent — responsibly, consciously, and knowingly — especially if one hopes to avoid a design which embodies and communicates oppressive notions. In particular, within the purview of ethics, and by making use of some case-studies and examples, it argues that designing toward gender equality requires not the more typical gender-blind approach, but rather one which is specifically gender-conscious. Further, this article also offers some suggestions as to how we might begin to act as ethical design agents and implement marginalized epistemologies into the design process.