How diversity gets lost: Age and gender in design practices of information and communication technologies

ABSTRACT

This article adopts an intersectional approach to investigate how age, gender, and diversity are represented, silenced, or prioritized in design. Based on a comparative study of design practices of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for young girls and older people, this article describes differences and similarities in the ways in which designers tried to cope with diversity. Ultimately diversity was neglected, and the developers relied on hegemonic views of gender and age, constructed older people and young girls as an “other,” and consequently their input was neglected. These views were thus materialized in design and reinforce such views in powerful yet unobtrusive ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Ageism
• design
• diversity
• gender
• intersectionality
• technology

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Alexander Peine for his helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. This article draws on two sets of empirical material from two PhD research projects.

Funding

The robotics case was funded entirely by the University of Twente. As a result, the funding source had no influence on the research design, data collection and analysis, and the writing and submitting of this paper. The research on KidCom was financed by the company that developed the device. However, Marcelle Stienstra was employed by the University of Twente and the supervision of the project was done by Prof. Oudshoorn, who has no ties to the company in question. The funding source therefore had no influence on the research design and analysis, nor on the writing and submitting of this paper. The source of funding did facilitate the data collection, as access to a design project was achieved that would otherwise have remained inaccessible.

Notes

1. This article aims to provide an analysis that is sensitive to the way age and gender are constructed, focusing on how they intersect in these design processes and how designs and design practices of technologies for girls and older people compare to each other. This article thus does not aim to do a full-fledged systematic intersectional analysis and is thus more exploratory in nature.

2. See press release IP/07/831, “€1bn in Digital Technologies for Europeans to Age Well” which can be found at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/831&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en.

3. This trend is exemplified by the fact that €700 million of the €1 billion budget EU research program mentioned goes to Ambient Assisted Living technologies. Ibid.

4. See Neven (2011), chapter 2, for a more detailed analysis of the visions and mission statements about the future users of AmI technologies.

5. The term othering was first introduced by feminist scholars (see Oudshoorn, 1996).

6. It proved necessary to anonymize this research project and the company. Thus it is not possible to refer directly to or quote publications. The name “iRo” is therefore fictitious.

7. A more detailed description of these tests can be found in Neven (2010).

8. This research has been conducted by Louis Neven as part of his PhD research. For a more detailed analysis of how designers represent older users, see Neven (2011).

9. In the 2006 publication on iRo, the market for domestic robots is discussed. The publication states that due to the rising cost of health care, the aging population, and dearth of care professionals, the area of robots for older people will become “an enormous market” by 2015.

10. See Neven (2010) for more examples and analyses of these defiant responses.

11. See Rudden, D. (2010, April 6). Canada boasts the third-largest video game industry. Network World. Retrieved from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/040610-canada-boasts-the-third-largest-video.html.

12. In recent years, several successful alternative computer games have emerged that are not strictly designed as boy spaces. Two examples are “the Sims” series and games like Wii Sports and Wii Party; these games have been developed for women, nonfanatic “casual” gamers, or to be played by families. Although such games have been very successful (see Cross, 2011), the dominant masculine design culture remains firmly in place.

13. Although KidCom was developed and intended to be marketed specifically for girls, in design documents KidCom was presented as a product for kids, hence the name. Despite the enthusiasm of the children involved in the development and testing, Kidcom was never put on the market for company-internal reasons (Rommes et al., 2003, p. 189).

14. This research was done by Marcelle Stienstra as part of her PhD thesis. See Stienstra (2003) for a more detailed study of how designers configure young girls in the development of electronic games for this group.

15. Although the girls’ rejection of a too-girly image did not influence the design process, the project team decided to target Kidcom at boys as well, thus preventing a “ghettoization” of girls’ interests (Rommes et al., 2003, p. 213).

16. Bearing in mind that computer games like the KidCom we studied help children to develop part of their gender identity, we may wonder what kind of girls this device produces, particularly if we consider what kind of boys are produced by the Xboxes and PlayStations. Whereas the latter two allow children to experiment with masculine-connotated values such as competition, exploration, risk-taking, and aggression, Kidcom assists children to experiment with feminine-connotated behavior such as communication, developing personal relations, and getting to know oneself (Rommes et al., 2003, p. 210). As the Xbox and PlayStation, KidCom can thus be considered as an extension of the highly gender-segregated games for kids. However, compared to other computer games for girls, it can be considered as less extreme in its reliance on gender stereotypes and allowed for more diversity among girls. KidCom did not create animals to care for, such as Tamagotchi, or dolls to dress up, such as Barbie Fashion Designer. Neither did it encourage girls to make decisions about dating or what clothes or makeup to wear, which was the main content of Purple Moon products (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998, p. 124; Stienstra, 2003, p. 52). In contrast, KidCom helped girls to become competent in communication and to know themselves and their friends, instead of educating them to become good mothers and attractive women.

17. However, there are some companies, particularly the smaller and younger game design firms, that try to challenge this dominant design culture by adopting a design strategy that aims to blur rather than emphasize gender dichotomies (Kafai, Heeter, & Sun, 2008). These design practices exemplify a “gender cross-over” design strategy that tries to incorporate female as well as male interests and preferences (Gansmo, 2003, p. 40; Stienstra, 2003). These firms aim to develop computer games that combine cooperation and role-playing—assumed to be attractive for girls—with competition and action—assumed to be attractive for boys (Rommes, 2011, p. 114). The resulting products should be of interest to both girls and boys and “allow users to engender themselves, to attribute to themselves a gendered identity of any number of sorts, to create or perform themselves through using technology” (Cassel, 2002, p. 407). Although some companies thus try to allow for more diversity, the current pink wave in the kid market with its proliferation of pink-colored products for girls, including toys, clothes, bikes, cell phones, etc., indicates that pink design based on traditional stereotypes of femininity still dominates product development for girls, thus creating and reinforcing a girly-girl culture. For a more detailed discussion of the current revival of the pink culture in the market for kids, see Orenstein (2011).

18. In historical perspective, the very fact that pink has become the dominant color to depict girlyness is interesting because, until the late 19th century, colors were not used to express gender differences among children. It was only when girls were allowed more freedom in the public domain that colors as markers of gender were introduced. Remarkably, the perfect color for girls that was first mentioned was blue rather than pink because blue was considered as symbolic for faithfulness and fidelity, both considered as female qualities (Fine, 2010).

Additional information

Funding

The robotics case was funded entirely by the University of Twente. As a result, the funding source had no influence on the research design, data collection and analysis, and the writing and submitting of this paper. The research on KidCom was financed by the company that developed the device. However, Marcelle Stienstra was employed by the University of Twente and the supervision of the project was done by Prof. Oudshoorn, who has no ties to the company in question. The funding source therefore had no influence on the research design and analysis, nor on the writing and submitting of this paper. The source of funding did facilitate the data collection, as access to a design project was achieved that would otherwise have remained inaccessible.