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When Bias in Product Design Means Life or Death

I've just read this fantastic post on the importance of considering diversity in product design and wanted to share it here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-bias-product-design-means-life-death-carol-reiley


I won't copy everything over, but here are just a couple of the points made that I found particularly concerning:


"In the 1960s, the vehicular test crash protocol called for testing with dummies modeled after the average male with its height, weight, and stature falling in the 50th percentile. This meant seatbelts were designed to be safe for men and, for years, we sold cars that were largely unsafe for women, especially pregnant women. Consequently, female drivers are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car crash."


"Microsoft’s vision system was reported to fail to recognize darker skinned people. Today, one of the most prominent applications of computer vision is self-driving cars, which rely on these systems to recognize and make sense of the world around them. If these systems don’t recognize people of every race as human, there will be serious safety implications."


"White men viewing a crowd with 17% women perceived it to be 50–50, and when it was 33% women, they perceived it to be majority women. A simple overestimation like this illustrates how difficult it can be to see the world from another’s perspective."
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    This is quite shocking!


    Another reason to highlight the importance of diversity at every level!
  • It's easy to recognise that seat belts were designed around the male form while you're wearing one. They're not exactly comfortable when you have some additional body parts out front! blush

  • Lisa Miles:

    It's easy to recognise that seat belts were designed around the male form while you're wearing one. They're not exactly comfortable when you have some additional body parts out front! blush




    So true!!!

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Agreed!! I always get my car seat belt chocking my neck/throat a little.
  • Great post and link. Thank you.


    An observation from the article
    :

    -Product teams need to do early and iterative end-user testing. Constantly. And from day one."


    I am amazed that all product teams are not already doing early testing (we used to call this, basic testing, in Telecommunications)


    Early testing should also include subsystem testing, so for example, in the PhD studies of "Microsoft’s speech recognition API to build a human-robot interface to showcase our autonomous surgical robotic system" mentioned by Carole Reiley, in the article, the Application Program Interface (API) should have been tested for the speech recognition for all potential users (including voice pitch). Unfortunately in product design, there's a culture of "what you see is what you get" - hence, if an interfacing tool is incorrectly designed, one is either forced to correct it (unplanned project time and cost); not use the incorrect interfacing tool and develop one's own (which could be prohibitively expensive); carry the error in the interfacing tool forward into the new product development (unthinkable and unacceptable, especially if the product is for a critical system); find some means of compensating for the error in the interfacing tool - which Reiley was forced to do in her PhD studies.


    As for iteractive testing, it goes without saying. Iteractive testing also applies to any configuration changes, including requiremnet changes.



  • I guess I've always known that certain things are more uncomfortable but didn't really equate them with being so much more dangerous. 47% is a scary statistic, especially as they only started testing with female crash test dummies 5 years ago. Not sure how long it takes for tests to become reality for the car industry, but safe to say that it will take a few years before any adjustments start to filter through into wider usage and for the current cars on the roads to be replaced.


    Are there any other areas that you can think of where there is an obvious bias in design or set-up? Having been to a number of conferences, it is obvious that the chairs and room temperature are usually set up for the comfort of the male attendees. I have sat in numerous lecture theatres at conferences, with the air conditioning usually set to an uncomfortably cold temperature* and in a seat which is usually too high for my feet to sit flat on the floor, and too long for my back to reach the backrest of the chair^). The sooner more variety is considered in design, the better!


    *http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33760845

    ^http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/DEA3250Flipbook/DEA3250notes/sitting.html
  • I agree with you.


    I also think the sooner appropriate testing strategy (for all user cases), knowledge and skills are identified and implemented the safer product design and development will be for every user of the product or service.

  • Antonia Tzemanaki:

    Agreed!! I always get my car seat belt chocking my neck/throat a little.





    Me too Antonia! smiley


    I think mainly its because of body length sizes. I read somewhere that generally mens bodies are long in the torso and short in the leg whereas womens bodies are usually longer in the leg and shorter in the torso. So obviously when we sit down, our torso length is shorter and therefore the seat belt positioning is generally too high for us, cutting across our necks and other 'sensitive' areas. 


    You see this in bikes too. My MTB is designed specifically for a womans specification being shorter in framelength but slightly higher/taller than my partners bike. He's only 2" taller than me but you can see side by side that my legs are longer than his but his torso is longer than mine.
  • Other obvious bias in design/set up:


    1. Temperature in offices: the ideal temperatures are based on men in formals, which is too cold for women who normally wear clothing according to the season.

    2. Coveralls: the sizes available are mostly men's sizes and they are so impractical for women! you need to take them off to use the toilets. Not sure if there are any trouser and jacket type available but most oil and gas installations require personnel to wear coveralls.
  • Yes, Rajeswari, the thermostat is always set for men!


    Another area of bias in design can be seen in infrastructure and projects such as the Crossrail development. The project was approved in 2007 and construction began in 2009. It wasn't until 2014 that Crossrail agreed to invest in disability-friendly access at Seven Kings, Maryland, Manor Park and Hanwell stations. Why didn't such a large infrastructure project consider this need right from the start? When you think about the scale of the project and the investment, how did so many pairs of eyes look at the plans and not see a problem with having a service that was inaccessible to so many?