Candice’s CornerFebruary 6th, 2014

Avoiding Racist Designs with Diverse Usability Testing

• As I mentioned last time, my goal is to help the class think creatively and critically about designing usable interfaces.

• One of the most important things about interfaces is their intended use by people.

• As designers, who counts as a person is very important; we strive to be as inclusive as possible.

• The following are examples of designers who did not consider inclusivity.

Inadvertent Racism

HP’s face tracking feature for their web cam: http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4DT3tQqgRM

• What went wrong?

• How could this have been avoided during design?

• Mistakes happen, what should the company do about it now?

HP’s Response• "Some of you may have seen or heard of a YouTube video in which the facial-

tracking software didn't work for a customer. We thank Desi, and the people who have seen and commented on his video, for bringing this subject to our attention.

• We are working with our partners to learn more. The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the camera might have difficulty "seeing" contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting. While we work on this, take a look here for more information on the impact of lighting on facial tracking software, and how to optimize your webcam experience: http://bit.ly/7HsZHD”

Another ExampleNikon Coolpix S630

“Nikon isn't the only

big brand whose consumer cameras have displayed an occasional — though clearly unintentional — bias toward Caucasian faces.”Read more: Face-Detection Cameras: Glitches Spur Charges of Racism - TIME 

Conclusion:

• Whether intentional or not, the effect is the same.• These products defined sections of the consumer

population as non human because parts of their faces were not recognized by the software.

• This subjectifies them as “other,” not normal. It makes the interface unusable and hurts the brand or designer’s image in the marketplace.

• Plan – Design – Test – And be inclusive!