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Design has an empathy problem: white men can’t design for everyone
IDEO is one of the most well known and successful design consultancies in the world. But in recent days they’ve gotten pushback on Instagram for their record on diversity and the state of diversity in design in general.
This is a critical conversation, and it’s fitting that IDEO would be a flashpoint. The design process they championed and popularized perpetuates a belief that any person can design for anyone else, and this belief plays a central role in design’s continuing lack of diversity.
Despite making gains in the past two decades, design is still woefully monochromatic. A survey of nearly 10,000 designers published in 2019 by AIGA found that the field is still 71% white. With 9% Asian, 8% Latinx, and only 3% African American, and these numbers are basically unchanged since AIGA’s first survey conducted in 2016. Further, while the 2019 survey did show that women outnumber men, with 61% of respondents identifying as female, there are still large disparities when you look at who fills leadership and decision making roles. Only 29% of art directors are female, and as you move higher up the org chart that percentage drops quickly. Additionally, only 15% of the 2019 respondents identified as LGBTQIA+.
Design is still an industry driven by white men, and honestly, we’re all worse…
