Redefining the design process to make it
more equitable and inclusive

SCADpro Collaboration with Google, Facebook. & Amazon

UX Design, Project Leadership, Service Design

Project Objective

SCAD partnered with Google, Facebook & Amazon to research and develop a methodology for equitable and inclusive experience design to be tested, adopted, and evolved through academia and industry for the service and benefit of all.

____________________

To build a framework and tools that design teams and leaders can use to pause in their design process and make it more equitable, designers must learn about the state of equity in the U.S. in 2021.

a.

Racism and Trauma

Racism in America has left many, including designers of color with immense trauma. How do we design in a way that is inclusive, equitable, and diverse?

b.

Designers Have Power

As designers, we have the power to solve problems or make matters worse. 

c.

A New Mission Statement

We endeavor to transform hopes for an equitable future into reality. To realize empathy as action and foster equitable design.

Representative research with stakeholders across different companies and diverse experiences was crucial to understand the current state of design in the tech world.

01 RESEARCH

40+ Subject Matter Expert Interviews

  • Big Tech UX Designers, Researchers, Managers and Directors

  • Big Tech Users across the Black and African Diaspora

  • Diversity Equity & Inclusion [DEI] Experts, Activists, and Organizers

  • Designers of color and different ethnicities

  • Engineers outside of Big Tech

Literature Review

Subject Matter Expert User Testing

Our research revealed that racism and inequity are often the result of design decisions. To uncover their roots within large tech companies, we identified recurring patterns and themes.

02 SYNTHESIS

Across the 3 companies, themes concerning Education, the Power and Role of Tech Companies, and Company Culture, among others, were greatly discussed. These themes helped us guide our How Might We statements and into creating future solutions to combat inequity. 

03 DESCRIBE

    • Educate ourselves on issues, beyond a brief workshop.

    • Educate young people on what design is and why we need these diverse voices. 

    • We have to represent underrepresented communities, share their experiences, and provide a feeling of belonging and inclusion, both in the workplace and the design process.

    • Tokenism hinders those whom it appears to elevate. We need to provide a way for diverse communities to grow inside a company with opportunities and trust. 

    • Lack of representation and trust can drive employees away, worsening the lack of equity in design. Equity should be the center of the design process, the hiring process, and more.

    • Inclusive and diverse company culture is how equity can happen in the first place. when you bring in new designers, you are accountable for their continued success. 

    • Global companies set the standard for others to drive change and achieve equity. 

Moving away from a Marathon Framing

Traditionally design is framed as a marathon, an event with a clean finish line.
This framing is naturally: 

  • Competitive

  • Time-centric

  • Concerned with quantity over quality.

  • Fast-paced 

"Any system will only produce what it was designed to produce.”

Towards a Collaborative Concert

The design of tomorrow is not a marathon. It is a collaborative concert.
There are no winners and losers in the design of tomorrow.

  • Replacing sprints with jam sessions.

  • Collaboration is at the heart of the design process.

  • Non-competitive

  • With a natural ending to projects

  • Equity-focused and inclusive of many communities

  • Quality is most valued over quantity and fast-paced results.

Critical Race Theory as a framework for new design tools

04 DEVELOP

The team decided to base our new equity in design framework on a well-established but modern theory about race in HCI. This is when we all read and analyzed Critical Race Theory for HCI, by Ihudiya Finda Ogbonnaya-Ogburu, Angela D. R. Smith, Alexandra To, Kentaro Toyama. Additionally, we examined three frameworks which are Equity meets Design, Equity-centered Community Design, and National Equity Projects. We found their core is the same and it is not a coincidence: Critical Race Theory.

​From this, I selected the main tenets of this theory, visualized them, and created the basis of the path moving forward:

    • Those who rarely encounter racism often think of it as an occasional happening.

    • Racism is pervasive, ever-present, structural, and systemic, embedded in institutions and practices.

    • Entirely human-made.

    • Each person represents a unique and conflicting set of overlapping identities.

    • Must be anti-essentialist and incorporate an understanding that these intersecting identities create unique contexts.

    • Racism benefits some groups, and those groups are reluctant to move against it.

    • Color-blindness and equality can impede its goals, as they prohibit race-conscious attempts to right historical wrongs.

    • Belonging to a racial minority endows a unique perspective especially concerning race and racism.

What stories can designers tell and listen to?

What activities can designers do?

What questions can designers reflect on?

Designing the new Equitable Design Toolkit

The team would come up with stories, activities, and reflection questions for designers.

These activities would ignite the designer to critically think about their equitable practices in design. The team also kept in mind which of the activities could happen at a certain point in the design process. 

From our Collaborative Concert idea, came our branded tools: Equity Beats. Take a beat, a pause, in the design process, to practice these. These Equity Beats are based on the tenets of Critical Race Theory, which was discussed earlier. These Beats come at certain points of the design process. 

05 Design & DELIVER

Designing the microsite that houses the new design toolkit

UX Development

01

The team started out developing the website in Squarespace, as the project could be worked on collaboratively. Additionally, the website created would be responsive, can be switched to a "light mode" for accessibility purposes. 

But we also yearned for micro-interactions, hover interactions, slideshows, and in general more freedom to design. The static Squarespace grid did not allow us
to do that. 

02

We switched to Figma while we thought about ways to improve on the interactions and visual design.

The first iteration in Figma was to figure out a better placement for the Challenge, Equity Beat, and Purpose. We started to realize the possibilities of not having a rigid grid and also playing with the blob visual element.

03

The approach was not working the way we expected. I introduced the gradient at the top of the page and continued on adding gradients to reduce the contrast of the blobs that were now not part of the content.

I provided more contrast to the part of the process affected by a Beat, and I centered the details of it as well. Buttons were now more meaningful. We also added easy access to the other Beats at the bottom of the page. 

04

Next, a few tweaks were made. The logo was smaller, the gradient came all the way to the top of the page, and the website was now a standalone piece, after testing it with design professionals. Information was better laid out, including the steps of the process.

  • 02 Wireframe iteration

  • 03 New gradient aesthetic

  • More details added

  • 04 Final iteration on website

  • 04 Final iteration on website (continued)

  • 03 Wireframe iteration (continued)

  • 01 Layout explorations

Project Takeaways

This project marked a turning point in how I approach design. It shifted my perspective on what it means to create with equity and inclusion in mind—not as a separate layer, but as a core part of the design process itself. I felt energized and motivated to carry these values forward and share them with my future teammates, knowing that thoughtful, inclusive design can have a lasting impact.

The experience gave me a clearer understanding of how to elevate underrepresented voices through research and storytelling, and how to engage stakeholders meaningfully around those insights. It also helped me realize the responsibility we have as designers to consider intersectional experiences when shaping products and services.

Hearing from professionals at Google, Facebook, and Amazon that they were excited to share our final deliverables with their networks was deeply validating—it reinforced that design rooted in empathy and equity is not just necessary, but valued.