Title: More Than Hair, Nails & Makeup: Understanding how user experience design addresses unconscious biases in technology among young women of color

Description:

How do young women of color see themselves in the products they are using in their everyday lives?" "What information should be included in technology tools that accurately reflect the cultural roots of girls of color?" "How can more young women of color interested in technology create a voice for the consumer?" These critical questions and several others will be addressed in this workshop that invites students to identify how social justice principles plays a role in technology advancement. Specifically, this session will expose students to the role of unconscious bias and how certain beliefs and assumptions influence their relationship with technological products and experiences. User experience is one approach to address issues of unconscious bias often times found in technology. User experience, a field rooted in diverse social science fields such as sociology and psychology, assesses the interaction and perceptions that people have when using a product of service. In this session, attendees will be introduced and be able to engage in practical application in the following UX fundamentals: user research and user design. Participants will learn how to understand and incorporate the needs of groups with detailed research and design a process that allows users to interact with a technological product and experience from moment to moment. Participants will be able to identify user experience (UX) design to overcome challenges in unconscious biases in technology both from an entrepreneurial and consumer perspective. Lessons learned and long-term implications for this approach will also be addressed.