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hi I'm Mallory hi I'm Harry we're ux researchers at Google today we'll be
sharing our learnings on the topics of prior to inclusion equity and community co-design
where OS is at the beginning of our product inclusion and Equity Journey as we continue
it we'll be sharing what we've learned to help Drive progress in our industry and Beyond we
would like to share how we've recently approached community co-design in considerations you may need
to take when beginning this work this approach is still considered nascent in product development
within Tech and because it's so new it has many different names but for the purposes of this
video we will be referring to this approach as community co-design before we dive in we'd like
to acknowledge that Community co-design is a Strategic investment this work must be set
up in a way that Fosters long-term authentic and reciprocal relationships with communities
first let's talk about the differences between traditional participatory design
and Equity focused design approaches traditional participatory co-design is a research methodology
that consists of Hands-On co-creation of user interfaces and interactions with potential users
Unity co-design brings an equity focused lens to co-creation and focuses on Building
Solutions with not for historically marginalized communities in traditional co-design researchers
employ the following tactics typically we recruit participants based on Behavioral or attitudinal
characteristics in community co-design we engage with people based on identity culture community
and context traditionally participants are only seen as subjects to be researched in
community co-design we treat people as subject matter experts and co-designers of Technology
we engage these experts not only in data collection but throughout the design process
in all research standard ethics must be considered in community co-design we carefully consider
personal identity and sensitive topics such as safety and health we must ask ourselves are we
the right person to conduct the research and how can we ensure the study may not cause distress
to those involved lastly traditional research questions default to asking users to generalize
their needs motivations and experiences while Community co-design asks questions
that are framed through the lens of identity and context for example asking a community expert how
they plan to travel as a woman in an unfamiliar Urban environment May reveal completely different
responses compared to asking a participant how they generally plan travel identity and
context matters and these insights can improve how we build Solutions next we'll review some
considerations for how your team can approach Equity focused research and community co-design
before starting this work consider a few key questions first shut a community co-design
project be done at all asking people for marginalized communities to discuss their
personal experiences regarding exclusion and at times trauma without a clear action
plan is performative at best and harmful at worst before engaging in this work consider
critical questions such as are you the right person or entity to conduct this
work in the first place are there already Community Driven Solutions you can invest in
what will the short-term and long-term impact of this project be and who will benefit most
second is the community co-design project set up for success co-design can take more
time and be more expensive but the quality and longevity of outputs is worth the investment
make sure you schedule enough time and resources to adequately address learnings from the community
power dynamics in research safety is critical when setting up community co-design there is no
one way to guarantee safety but here are some areas to consider as you get started make sure
research moderators are trained in equity focused research practices if your organization does not
have subject matter experts in the space consider partnering with organizations that specialize in
equity work as a research moderator build a sense of community by finding common ground
for example try to work with trained moderators who are within the community you are working with
if that is not feasible try to find shared experiences and interests to connect with
community members on a personal level question whether the surveillance atmosphere of traditional
research environments where team members listen into sessions is appropriate for your project
ask community members for their consent before inviting team members in as a moderator provide
informed consent transparency about why we are asking certain questions and be open to
answering questions during session create a collaborate environment leverage methods
such as friendship groups this is a form of focus group where members bring a few friends
within their Community to talk about shared or personal experiences with more comfort and ease
consider building trust through transparency agency and knowledge building clearly Define
the intention of the project and keep co-designers updated on progress
try to be explicit when sharing information about privacy data and next steps
for example when recruiting participants we used Progressive disclosure to let folks
know this test talks about sensitive content before asking them to sign up for the research
consider providing more agency and research and deliverables make all questions optional
provide updates the ability to erase or edit a response and co-create narratives
build community and cultural knowledge by critically analyzing history and personal biases
for example if your team is focused on gender equity in the wearable space you can conduct
the literature review of the history of women and wearable tech focus on intersectionality barriers
and opportunities in key areas like Hardware design safety and health consult and compensates
experts such as employee research groups and Community organizers and work with your diversity
equity and inclusion team to identify and understand your own biases to avoid stereotypes
ways to Value the lived experience of community members and compensate them for their expertise
in community co-design internal designers should act as facilitators while Community
experts take on the role of subject matter experts include co-designers not only in
research but in decision making and development prioritize Community expertise and impact over
design intuition and intentions as we build more long-term relationships consider how we
may push forward thinking around Equitable compensation for example we could Grant
company Equity Awards to co-designers or invest in their professional development
consider focusing research on healing and building restorative Solutions versus evaluating exclusion
in current products try to avoid the need to rehash foundational issues of inequity with
Community experts solely for the sake of telling traditional user stories and problem validation
this highlights a concept called the datification of Injustice a phrase coined by ruha Benjamin
this is when the hunt for more and more data becomes a barrier to acting on what we already
know and moving from identifying problems to building transformative Solutions [Music]
consider collaborative decision making throughout the product development process
consider co-designing the entire end-to-end project from goals scope
and intended outcomes with Community experts this strategy helps to mitigate
risks of making inaccurate assumptions and keeps the needs of the community centered
work with Community experts to create short-term and long-term Solutions be transparent
by technical constraints and re-engage code designers when new decisions arise consider how
you can leverage deliverables as a key part of The Learning Journey for example in research reports
make sure to highlight Community activists books articles and important causes link resources so
your team can support Community causes financially to invest in the community you are working with
prior to inclusion co-design are stages in Tech we are sharing these learnings to begin an open
dialogue with more people and partners so we can start to Define this practice together
special shout out to equity research vendor dope labs for collaborating
with Google on community co-design work and learnings for more information on
community co-design check out the resource section below thanks for listening [Music]
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