Perceptions of the Design Process: An Examination of Gendered Aspects of New Product Development

1. Perceptions of the Design Process: An Examination of Gendered Aspects of New Product Development Catherine Newman Marisa Bauer Alice M. Agogino Jennifer Mankoff

2. Inspiration • "As women rightly take their place as half the creators, technology will find its positive and peaceful impact on the future.” – Anita Borg

3. 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

4. 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: • 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

5. 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: • Did this class result in the students believing that designing technology for traditionally underrepresented populations such as women is included in ‘good design’? • Did this class result in the students believing that technology can and should serve a broad and diverse population? • Did this class result in women in the class being more inclined to work in technology and/or technology-related design?

6. 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)

7. Results: Perceptions of Gender in the Design Process • 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

8. View of Design Process:– Semester Start • Naive view of the design process. • Almost no customer feedback in the design process. • Linear or ‘production line’ view of the design process. • Sense that designing for girls/women was different than designing for boys/men.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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? • No substantial shift in students’ interest in switching majors. • Interested in working in technology on design level. “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 non-technical in nature.” • I am comfortable using technology. • 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.