Tag Archives: designing for women

Designing products that break biases with Render Weekly and Ti Chang!

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If you are a part of our Instagram community, you could have not missed this viral (and controversial!) post that shed light on gender bias in the design world. As conversations progressed, I realized the bias goes beyond genders and there are MANY segments of our audience who are underrepresented. We need to talk to and more about women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled groups – pay attention to their experiences, their needs, parts where they have felt left out of consideration when using a product or service. The post was a conversation starter but it needed to be followed by action, so Yanko Design teamed up with designer (and powerhouse) Ti Chang as well as Render Weekly to encourage participation from the global community with the aim of designing to break a bias.

“This is a chance to start to redesign products and experiences that do not address the needs of womxn and many underrepresented groups and historically marginalized communities. Let’s reimagine what could be! Let’s get these ideas out there by collaborating with EACH OTHER! Talk to your community, reexamine your privilege, reach out to this community and see if you can team up with them! Offer to realize other people’s ideas if you are super strong in rendering! If you have a great idea reach out to someone who is a great sketcher! Just get these ideas out there for us to see what a more equitable world COULD look like,” said Ti Chang.

Here are some of our favorites from the #RWDesignBias challenge –

CURVD by Amin Hasani

Hasani is one of the co-founders of CURVD, a universal mug that works for everyone! “Disabilities do not exist, design flaws do. When a product fails to serve a person, that person is not disabled, the product just wasn’t designed right. The CURVD mug was designed to allow all hands, regardless of their hand capability or shape, to be able to enjoy a beverage without limitations,” says Hasani. The mug was launched as a human-friendly design with a patented handle that allows all people, regardless of their hand capability, to be able to enjoy a beverage without limitations. Enjoying a warm beverage is a universal joy and deserves a universal design.

Maria Contraceptive Pill Dispenser by Romane Caudullo and Theotim Auger

Maria is a smart pill dispenser specially designed for the contraceptive pill with the aim to free women from pill omission pressure and its side effects. “Because, while the pill benefits the whole couple, the woman is often alone in managing this contraceptive, the constraints, and stress associated with it. It seems to us right and necessary to use design to improve this treatment,” says the team. Maria makes it easy for women to take the pill and improves its effectiveness by making the process more efficient. A much-needed redesign that comes 60 years after the FDA approval of birth control pills!

 

Changing Station by Claudia Miranda-Montealegre

Baby stations in public are only found in women’s bathrooms and do not take into account the needs of male caregivers. The current design does not feel safe, or hygienic, which leads to people using surfaces that might not be ideal (cars, floors, and counters/tables). This puts the burden on the female partners and takes away equal access from male partners. This conceptual baby changing station has a touch-less opening system, includes UV and alcohol self-cleaning capabilities, as well as integrated adjustable lighting. It upgrades the safety features to provide a comfortable experience for parents and infants alike. It also includes details such as hooks for bags, safety belts that can be adjusted using one hand, and a diaper dispenser for a seamless experience.

Pivot by Iris Ritsma

Even in 2020 majority of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is still being designed for the male body including body armor which is made to protect people from being harmed or even killed by gunfire. 71% of women working in emergency services wear PPE that is designed for men – it doesn’t fit women, their bodily movement, health issues, and more. Pivot is a soft concealable armor designed to optimally fit the anthropomorphic characteristics of women’s bodies. Each size comes with three variable chest sizes and the diagonal straps fit neatly around women’s naturally tighter waist with raised sides on the bottom provide extra freedom of movement in the hips. Pivot provides optimal protective coverage, maximizes women’s mobility, and increases women’s comfort significantly.

Liberia by Nipuni Siyambalapitiya

Current luggage scales in the market assume that most people can lift up a 50 lb/23kg on a hook/strap and weighed, it doesn’t take into account the elderly or those with disabilities. Liberia is a pneumatic luggage scale that allows you to weigh your bag WHILE packing! It is a pillow-like scale and accompanying app. It comes with an electronic air-pump that inflates it and a pressure-sensitive valve that records change in air pressure inside the scale as the weight on top changes. Buttons and tabs are large enough for people with low grip strength and have different tactile qualities, making it easy to maneuver the scale even if you can’t see too well. Simply place the deflated scale on the floor, put your bag on top, inflate the scale via the app and start packing while Libera tells you the weight in real-time.

Interruption Buzzer for women by Kristi Bartlett

Trump interrupted Hilary Clinton 51 times during their debate and in 2020. This buzzer is inspired by the board game Taboo and aims to make group discussions easier. The AI-enabled meeting assistant combats the phenomenon of women being talked over in meetings. Put it in the center of the table at your meeting and adjust the dial to reflect the gender makeup of your group to make sure the contributions follow the proportions. The device will buzz annoyingly and loudly when it detects a woman being interrupted by a man or another woman. It will also turn blue if it detects that men are speaking more than 50% of the time and pink if the same applies to women. The goal is to keep your meetings purple – equal chances!

Diffuser by Caterina Rizzoni

This diffuser re-imagines blow-drying curly hair, using a handheld form factor to help users offset discomfort and pain when using diffuser attachments on traditional dryers. Caterina spoke to over a dozen curly-haired womxn and relied heavily on design for usability. She aimed to reduce the ergonomic pain points present in the current design. This dryer was designed to protect naturally curly hair – the extra deep bowl saves room for curl pattern formation, while the dished fingers naturally conform to the user’s head. The use of metal for the diffusing end allows for even more drying from radiant heat, which means less airflow and less frizz! The soft braided cord easily swivels out of the way during use, and the soft heat-resistant over-mold on the body is easy to grip + easy to clean. Curly hair people are often forgotten like left-handed people and we need to break this bias.

BAGPAL by Tim Zarki

Public restrooms lack hooks to hang your bag from, and no one likes putting their bag on the gross public restroom floor. It is an uncomfortable and stressful experience, especially for women as they carry bags more often than men. BAGPAL can be used to hang your bag when you are using a public restroom and need both hands to change a tampon or pad. It is a multipurpose hook-shaped product that travels with you to hold your things when you can not. It has a strong stainless steel skeleton and colorful waterproof skin that is easy to clean when you wash your hands. With the pandemic, people are all the more careful of common surfaces and we don’t want to carry germs back home with us on our bags!

Female friendly products designed to empower you this international women’s day!

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Intro

The Little Apricot Dresser by Tsing Hang is one dresser that lets you be in touch with your feminine side while maintaining a beautifully muted, wooden aesthetic that does not compromise on your need for a well-designed product. The felt wall holds your smaller products in place and seems to be easily removable, so you can go back to your minimal setup once you are done dressing up!

The Heer breastfeeding bench aims to conquer two existing status quo’s – First is to allow women to breastfeed in public without having to lock themselves in a tiny room to “finish their business”. Second is to still give them the comfort and privacy they deserve, keeping them safe from onlookers while being in a public setting. The cocoon-like structure of the chair envelops the mother and child with an open side that allows the mother to confer and stay in touch with their trusted companion while breastfeeding. Designed by 52 Hours, the Heer bench is normalizing women’s needs in an everyday setting.

The Present is a simple tweak to an existing product – the home pregnancy test kit, to help remove the fear and anxiety associated with positive pregnancy news at the first go. Aimed at couples trying to get pregnant, this kit gives a gentle reminder as to how the positive pregnancy test is the present the couple wants in their life. Designed collaboratively by Byeongjae Ha, Chi-eun Jang, Kiho Kim, and Jae Heum Lee, the strip is also equipped with a slot to showcase sonography pics for people who like to display this beautiful life-altering moment of their life.

Laila Laurel, a graduate from Brighton University has designed a unique set of chairs that helps to tackle manspreading! Using humor to address everyday issues, these chairs are designed for the female counterpart to spread-out and sit with east while another chair restricts the man’s legs, helping them sit straight and narrow while playing with gender stereotypes to create a neutral and comfortable environment!

Meet the Origamei outfit by Angela Wang, a project that has two purposes. One, to make fashion much more accessible, using the art of folding as a method to reduce a clothing item’s spatial footprint… and two, Origamei sees itself as more of an empowerment tool, as most clothes do, helping women dress in clothes that feel comfortable and make them feel confident. The fact that you can carry these clothes around in the palm of your hand, or even stash them in your clutch or the glove compartment of your car, means that the very confidence and self-esteem that you get from wearing good clothes, is made portable too.

Designer Anna Meddaugh has created a personal urinal, especially for women in refugee camps that can be used in shelters at night to avoid the threat of sexual violence outside. Meet the Night Loo, a portable and reusable toilet box with polymer beads that soak up liquid and odors, allowing women to pee in the relative safety of their space and empty out the contents during the daytime. The designer Anna actually received a US James Dyson Award for her prototype. Though designed keeping refugees in mind, this design can easily be repurposed to serve various other scenarios where women feel at risk while urinating.

The ALL DAY BAG by Johnathan Webster brings a new level of problem-solving and pragmatism to a product that’s clearly plagued with problems. By redesigning the core UX of the woman’s handbag, The ALL DAY BAG gives women the ability to do more and carry more, with the freedom of being able to wear their handbag the way they see fit. The ALL DAY BAG is essentially a well-designed backpack in the avatar of a woman’s handbag. It comes with a full-grain premium leather exterior in a silhouette that puts it at par with most high-end handbags, albeit with an adjustable strap system that lets you carry it like a handbag, wear it like a tote, or even strap it across your shoulders like a backpack (effectively freeing up your hands).

The Connect Life Jacket makes you critically question an age-old existing design makes it a success. The Connect integrates mother and child into one single jacket (also adhering with the practice of evacuating “women and children first”), allowing the parent and child to stay safe and more importantly together in the event of a maritime crisis. Designers Jialin Song, Kun Xu, Yumo Jiang & Chaojun Zhang have created the design in a way that the child’s positioning is conveniently close to the mother’s heart.

The Lapee is a shocking pink plastic structure that has three urinals arranged in a spiral, with curving backrests that provide privacy while allowing the user to remain aware of their surroundings. Designed by Gina Périer and Alexander Egebjerg, this product was aimed to help the standard female toilet for festivals and outdoor events that allows people to pee sitting down quickly and safely. The design is made to be used without a door, with its spiral design protecting the user from the front and back, giving them privacy without any additional risk of traveling to reach an enclosed private space only to urinate. Aimed at being the women’s alternative to men’s urinal, Lapee can truly change the landscape of public events!

Shahar Goren, a designer from Holon Institue of Technology in Israel has come up with the idea to design custom-made sandals that are not only fashionable but stylish too. Goren believes that as the structure of our feet are unique to us as individuals, it really isn’t a “one size fits all in that size” world. Goren’s idea sees making customized orthotics a solution to this problem. By taking a 3D scan of the foot at the shoe store the customer then chooses the shoe they would like. This scan is then digitally processed at the warehouse, to a CAD file of custom made orthotics. The factory then produces the orthotics, which are then created by a C.N.C. machine automatically. Then within a few days, the shop receives the orthotics for easy placement into the new sandals!