Inclusivity
This event is ‘powered by ClickNL’ and is made possible by Dutch Design Foundation, Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers BNO and Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken.
Our perspective on the theme…
Inclusivity, a timely theme which is relevant in the daily practise of every social designer. Social designers often work with historically marginalised groups of people who are neglected in society’s systems. But how inclusive is our discipline itself? And you and I as social designers? How did we put togetherour speaker panel? This writing is meant as a starting point for a dialogue, as an attempt to share an honest and transparent view on the thoughts, doubts and decisions in organizing this event. Our discipline definitely needs to step up and we hope to have these critical, constructive discussions and action perspectives during our event.
As a starting point we are very well aware of our own bubble: since we started Social Design Showdown we try to reach out to a broader audience to spread the word of social design. Although we have a rather well-balanced gender mix in our community, we are missing opportunities to have a representative societal mix. The majority of our community is educated at the same short-list of design institutes and departments. And as a discipline we are a very homogenous group of people since most of us are practising social design. We are always paying attention to the outside perspective to freshen up and enrich the debates at our events. We actively seek cross-overs with change management, publicadministration, sociology and anthropology for example.
We worked for months on hand-picking a selection of relevant speakers. We reached out to our first and second degree networks, we did a call in our newsletter, and we reviewed the long-list of candidates with our Advisory board. Our selection was based on:
Expertise on the topic of inclusive design approaches
Gender
Race
Educational background
So what about the event itself?
We are hosting a hybrid event, offline in Eindhoven and online via Zoom. Everyone can join in and the tickets are free. Registration and a CoronaCheck App is required.
For the first time we are hosting the event in English to be more accessible. We’ve had long discussions about inclusivity and the main language for our communication. Changing to a different language can also be non-inclusive for a lot of people since there is no dominant language in our social design field. When we started Social Design Showdown we deliberately chose to start in Dutch. We did this because we thought it would be beneficial to have a common native language to construct the social design community. In this decision we initially made a very exclusive group.
Our communication and invites are sent out via a broad set of organizations such as the Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers BNO, creative industry platform ClickNL and Dutch Design Foundation. This way we try to reach a broader audience than our own bubble.
The venue is not accessible for wheelchair users. Although we investigated the possibilities for a temporary elevator together with Dutch Design Foundation, this didn’t work out as a feasible plan. We will provide a human support team to help out any visitor to get inside the venue! And we will keep debating with Dutch Design Foundation to adapt the accessibility in the future.
All in all, we are welcoming everyone to join the conversation on how to improve the inclusivity of our events and our social design field. We hope this explanation is valuable in showing our efforts and thoughts in organising the event. There is definitely room for improvement so please do let us know if you have any suggestions via info@socialdesign.nu.
The Program
We present a fascinating program with a diverse panel and sharp substantive debates led by our moderator Praveen Sewgobind, research professor Diversity & Inclusivity at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Discover the speakers and more practical information in this newsletter.
Alain Dujardin
Creative Director Greenberry
The process of designing a conversational tool which helps organizations to take steps towards an inclusive design process, together with Jellie Tiemersma.
Jellie Tiemersma
Founder Personal Too
The process of designing a conversational tool which helps organizations to take steps towards an inclusive design process, together with Alain Dujardin.
Shay Raviv & Pim van der Mijl & Betina Abi Habib
De Voorkamer, Utrecht
The creation of an inclusive space to facilitate and stimulate the talents of status holders and asylum seekers.
Nina Timmers
Independent Strategic Designer
Nina will share her experience with running a large-scale and long-term participation project in London. What kind of infrastructure is required to create participation on such scale?
Roos Beerkens
Researcher at Customer Revolution
Roos will add her perspective to the plenary presentations as an expert in Intercultural Communication.
Lisa Hu
Founder of Foundation Terra Nova - Democratic Design
Lisa will add her perspective to the plenary presentations as a social designer and sociologist.
Breakout sessions
We have a nice set of exciting offline & online break-outs ready for you.
Subscription will happen at the start of our event. Some break-outs will be facilitated for online participation.
Workshop ‘Starting Point Inclusive Design’
This is an action-orientated break-out session where you will work with the ‘Starting Point Inclusieve Design’ launched this year by Greenberry & Personal Too.
Meant for: Medior & senior social designers
2. Workshop ‘Terra Nova Minimaatschappij’: explore your ideal society
With the Terra Nova dialogue game, you and your team will address issues of inclusion in an accessible way. You will be challenged to question existing systems, make leadership choices and create alternatives together.
Meant for: Everyone. Only suitable for Dutch speaking people.
3. Debate: “Even if you want to have a more inclusive staff, you will never succeed.”
A debate on how to hire “inclusive” within your design practise or agency.
Meant for: Senior social designers
4. Debate: "Should the host of this session be able to be present?"
Can everything be inclusive for everyone? When we design and create things, should we aim for full inclusivity? In this open conversation, we discuss what it means to be fully inclusive. We take a look at different design approaches, both from a philosophical and from a practical perspective, illustrated with examples from real life.
Meant for: Everyone
5. Debate: “As a social designer you should only work on projects in which you are stakeholder.”
Can you work on every type of project? Are you “allowed” to? And if not, are there approaches or methods to make your design process more inclusive by design.
Meant for: Everyone
6. Debate: “The input from underrepresented groups should weigh more heavily in your research analysis.”
How can you make sure that every segment of your user group is well-represented in your data analyses? Should you build in a way to deal with over- or underrepresented categories in your research?
Meant for: Everyone
7. Debate: “A white, able-bodied person can not translate the input from historically marginalized groups in a design process.”
Good intentions aside, are we able to cope with other perspectives? We might want to be inclusive, but is it possible?
Meant for: Everyone
8. Debate: “Design education is exemplary for non-inclusiveness.”
Changing our work field is a step-by-step process. It starts with informing students about their career choices, followed by the treshold to enter an institute or education. How can make education more accessible and how to deal with the exclusivity of some educations?
Meant for: Everyone
9. Debate: “An inclusive mindset is sufficient to ensure that your user research is inclusive.”
Being curious, admissible and being prepared to question your own frame of reference are a few of the core criteria to create an inclusive mindset. Is this enough? Or just an illusion?
Meant for: Everyone
10. After talk: Discussing the insights of the plenary program.
This session provides a free space to have an after talk of the plenary program with some of the speakers and guests.
Meant for: Everyone
11. Debate: “A cultural change starts by updating our language use with the contemporary norms of society.” [online]
In this session you will explore the power of language as a catalyst for changing gender-bias. Is language powerful enough to actually change the norms? How could it be? Or what other position can language have in creating a more inclusive society?
Meant for: Meant for everyone. Only suitable for Dutch speaking people.
12. Debate: “The role of a social designer in a participation project is purely facilitating.” [online]
An inclusive design process requires different roles, perspectives and approaches. In order to be truly inclusive, can designers have a different role than a purely facilitating one?
Meant for everyone
13. Debate: “A designer should not have the power to make decisions, their own biases are in the way.” [online]
We are all full of biases! How can we become more aware of them? And with that in mind, what should a designer’s role be?
Meant for everyone
Didn’t reserve a spot yet? Be quick!
Update
In the 7th Social design showdown event on the 17th of October, we came together. Both onsite and online, we discussed a topic that could almost be said to be at the very roots of social design. In his critique on commercialism, Victor Papanek in the 60s and 70’s, already made a plea for inclusivity in design and thereby launched an alternative perspective on what design could do. Even though the topic is of high importance to most of us, the question seems to remain: can we really say that our community itself is inclusive? For once, we pointed our gaze not towards our stakeholders, but to ourselves. To critically reflect, redirect and hopefully promote a more inclusive social design. We discussed, among other things, ways of designing, diversity of teams, exclusive language use, accessibility issues, our own biases and above all, wonderful exemplary design projects.
Panel discussion
Our panelists presented some of their projects in relation to the topic of inclusivity. They shared their insights into the topic, posed questions and partook in a critical discussion with Roos Beerkens: Researcher at Customer Revolution and Lisa Hu: Founder of Foundation Terra Nova - Democratic Design.
Our panelists
Alain Dujardin: Creative Director Greenberry & Jellie Tiemersma: Founder Personal Too- They presented a process of designing a conversational tool which helps organizations to take steps towards an inclusive design process.
Shay Raviv & Pim van der Mijl & Betina Abi Habib: De Voorkamer, Utrecht - They presented the creation of an inclusive space to facilitate and stimulate the talents of status holders and asylum seekers.
Nina Timmers: Independent Strategic Designer - Nina shared her experience with running a large-scale and long-term participation project in London and what kind of infrastructure was required to create participation on such a scale.
Breakout sessions
Let's discuss! After the presentations and plenary conversations we parted ways. A number of designers hosted several discussions and workshops with approximately 8 people in a timeframe of about 40 minutes. Each break-out discussed a particular statement on inclusivity and design. After the discussions the hosts prepared a document summarising what they had experienced. They were left completely free to do what they wanted with the form of this documentation. We received illustrations, textual summaries, annotated pictures and various other forms. Have a look at the results here:
1
Even if you want to have inclusive staff, you will never succeed.
2
Should the host of this session be able to be present?
3
As a social designer you should only work on projects in which you are stakeholder.
4
The input from underrepresented groups should weigh more heavily in your research analysis.
5
A white able-bodied person can not translate the input from historically marginalised groups in a design process.
6
Design education is exemplary for non-inclusiveness
7
A cultural change starts by updating our language use with the contemporary norms of society.
8
The role of a social designer in a participation project is purely facilitating.
9
A designer should not have the power to make decisions, their own biases are in the way.
Aside from the discussions based on statements, two workshops were hosted:
1
Workshop ‘Starting point inclusive design - giving feedback on a tool developed to have a conversation for those who aim to create inclusive digital products and services
2
Workshop terra nova - Democratic design Explore your ideal society
What have we learned?
The latter, of course, is an impossible question to answer. Each of us might have taken different things from the event. I, as the writer of this post, might have picked up on things relevant to me while they might be completely irrelevant to you and visa versa. I might have completely missed things or interpreted things in ways that are contestable. This might be part of what it means to work inclusively. To recognise such differences and to put in the work in order to understand each other's way of being in the world. And so, the following points are by no means a conclusion of the whole. Merely some points that I took to be relevant from the documentation that are hopefully relevant to you as well:
Designers always have ‘coloured glasses’ from the start. Everybody always already has a certain socio-cultural background. The choice to participate in a project is already a bias. Just like the way a designer deals with a project. We should not neglect these predispositions, but acknowledge them from the start. Try to bring them to the fore so that others may form their opinion in contrast to yours and respond.
When doing a project, being an outsider to your stakeholders gives you a fresh perspective. It allows you to see things that, for them, are so normal for them that they cease to perceive them themselves. On the other hand, being an insider gives you more direct access to inside knowledge. In both cases, you should recognise that you might not see the colour of your own glasses. Like a fish who cannot know they are in water.
Correspond with others! Listen and try to understand them, while casting your experience in a form that is hopefully understandable for them. We need to co-create & discuss.
But how might we include these ‘other’ people and perspectives in the process when it is comfortable to work with people we understand and who agree with us? We might not even know who we are not including. Some suggestions from the breakouts: let yourself be surprised by the qualities of others that you didn’t take into account before, regularly ask yourself the question, who might be excluded? For example: who can’t even physically access our discussions? Create multiple channels for people to participate: enquêtes, app groups, parties, and so forth. Overcompensate for your own predispositions and give more voice to marginalised groups. If you spot biases from people on the team, act on it!
As our moderator, praveen sewgobind, said in the concluding remarks. And I have to rephrase from memory: It is not about being inclusive once and for all. As a kind of end state that we can achieve by ticking all the boxes. It rather is about the process of constantly putting in the work. To keep asking yourself questions about inclusivity, and try to figure out what you are not yet seeing. It is about inclusive becoming, not becoming inclusive enough. So let’s not close the discussion with recommendations, but open it with more questions:
How do we include other life forms rather than humans alone? How do we deal with people who exclude themselves? Should everybody always be able to participate? Is inclusion always a good thing? If choosing a target group is part of design, isn’t it exclusive by definition? How does our language exclude others? How to find people that don’t find us? How do we reduce our biases in hiring new people? Can we ask minority groups to share our job openings? Do we actually know who we are excluding? Can we find a way to talk about this in a safe way? How? Does diversity need to be in your core team or can it be invited per project? Is accessibility to be judged by the majority, the intention of inclusion or based on whether we are satisfied with the result? Should blind people be able to use your website? Should every cafe have toilets for everyone? Should there be help to check in the train station? Who are we excluding?
This event is ‘powered by ClickNL’ and is made possible by Dutch Design Foundation, Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers BNO and Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken.