🌱 What role do equity and access play in design?
Design considerations, and their social justice implications, play a role in building and maintaining equality. At its core, who products and services are designed for is an equity and access question. Design products are often seen as niche luxury items for wealthy consumers. In the culture of over-consumption, which is widespread in most developed societies, design caters to consumer “needs” such as the desire for an easier, trendier, and more comfortable lifestyle. In addition to high-end products (e.g. personal electronics, luxury furniture, and food-delivery services), this also includes cheaper or single-use products (e.g. ready-made meals, takeaway coffee cups, and fast fashion clothing). Used in this way, design further deepens the division between economic groups and encourages materialistic consumption culture.
🌱 How is social injustices reflected in the design world?
Societies contain inequalities and these inequalities, unsurprisingly, are often also reflected in the design decisions made for products, services, and for example public spaces. In most cases women, people of color, disabled people and youth are underrepresented in the decision-making processes. In the EU, 24% of designers were women in 2021[i] and women represented approximately 25% of project managers globally in 2023.[ii] Black people held less than 5% of the design roles in 2021.[iii] This has led to social injustice. For instance, in 2019, car seats and professional equipment were still developed with only male data, and a lot of the design research was conducted with male-only test groups, which then regarded the male mental and physical attributes as the standard human attributes.[iv]
🌱 How are wealth structures reflected in the design world?
Broadly speaking, societal wealth structures affect which demographic groups become designers. Wealth structures also affect who the clients and investors of projects are — thus defining the goals, characteristics, and design considerations of projects and products.[v] Yet, when these structures and biases are addressed, design can be used to tackle inequalities.
🌱 How can design be used to protect vulnerable groups?
An example of how design can be used to protect vulnerable groups can be found in the “Embrace Infant Warmer”. The warmer is a low-cost and portable alternative to neonatal incubators that protects babies born at a low weight or prematurely in rural or remote areas. It was designed — notably by a predominantly female team — to specifically combat infant mortality in less wealthy parts of the world.[vi]
This post has been adapted from a newsletter written by Saskia Tykkyläinen and Christine Nikander for a collaboration between Palsa & Pulk and The E-Waste Column. The newsletter titled “What is the role of design in a just transition?” was originally published in both “The Just Transition Newsletter” and “The E-Waste Newsletter”.
[i] https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/de/web/guest/-/news/women-designers-underrepresented-and-paid-less-in-the-eu-study-reveals
[ii] https://www.pmi.org/learning/thought-leadership/women-in-project-management-2023
[iii] https://www.fastcompany.com/90646834/only-4-8-of-designers-are-black-herman-miller-adobe-and-gap-unveil-a-plan-to-change-that
[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes
[v] https://evolveea.com/the-role-of-design-in-social-justice/
[vi] https://www.techxlab.org/solutions/embrace-infant-warmer