Design Justice

Madeline Webster

Through A Lens of Repair

– Spelman, pg 2

“We, the world we live in, and the objects and relationships we create are by their very nature things that can break decay, unravel, fall to pieces.”

To Be Human

Man the Designer versus Homo Reparans

Design can constitute harm.

Design discrimination

Why exactly do design technologies continue to perpetuate harm?

�Through what frameworks of repair can these harms be addressed?

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How can we move forward in order to shape more equitable design futures?

The problem primarily lies in present-day standardization and universalization of design…

—Sasha Costanza-Chock, pg 23

“When this happens, user personas are literally objectified assumptions about end users. In the worst case, these objectified assumptions then guide product development to fit stereotyped but unvalidated user needs. Sometimes, they may also help designers believe they are engaged in an inclusive design process, when in reality the personas are representations of designers’ unvalidated beliefs about marginalized or oppressed communities.”

—Sasha Costanza-Chock, pg 23

“Design justice is a framework for analysis of how design distributes benefits and burdens between various groups of people. Design justice focuses explicitly on the ways that design reproduces and/or challenges the matrix of domination (white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, settler colonialism, and other forms of structural inequality).”

Design justice + repair

Thank you!