Feminist HCI is a critical and ethical-aesthetic framework that offers a theoretical agenda for rethinking Human-Computer Interaction from a feminist perspective, placing plurality of experiences, participation, and care at the center.
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Feminist HCI
Feminist HCI wants to transform this discipline by putting social justice, diversity of voices, and equity at the center. It gives voice to groups often excluded from design processes, makes the diversity of human experiences visible and transforms the way technological interfaces and services are imagined and built.
Abbreviation Feminist HCI
Origin and context
It arises from the recognition of the influence of gender on technology in the 1980s and is formalized by researchers such as Shaowen Bardzell, who in 2010 proposed frameworks for incorporating feminist thinking into HCI practice.
Principles
Technological design is not neutral and can perpetuate social biases.
Situated knowledge and the plurality of voices must be recognized.
Participation, ethics and care must be pillars of design.
Components
Fundamental principles : pluralism, participation, advocacy, ecology, corporality, self-revelation.
Theoretical influences : feminist epistemology of situated knowledge.
Roles : designers and researchers involved as reflective agents.
Operating guide
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- Critically analyze the sociocultural context and power structures present in technology.
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- Actively involve users as collaborators, not just as objects of study.
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- Design for and with diversity, paying attention to corporeality, emotions and particular contexts.
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- Facilitate personalization and self-definition by users
Advantages
- Introduction of a critical and reflective perspective on technological design.
- Greater inclusivity and representation of diverse groups.
- Promotes ethical co-responsibility in design and research teams.
- It promotes inclusion as an integral part of the design process.
Limitations
- It can be complex to apply if there is no prior knowledge of feminism or social justice.
- The risk of “simplifying” the framework and falling into tokenism (superficial and symbolic inclusion of people belonging to minority or discriminated groups, in order to appear diverse or inclusive without a real commitment to equity and justice)
- It may require more time and resources to ensure real participation.
To take into account
It does not offer a step-by-step procedure but rather a set of principles and values. Its success depends on the teams’ critical and reflective capacity and the real will to integrate diversity into the design process. It involves a change in cultural and political perspective, not just technical.
Documentation
Bardzell, S. (2010). Feminist HCI: Taking Stock and Outlining an Agenda for Design. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753521
Gender HCI, Feminist HCI, Post-Colonial Computing, Anti-Oppressive Design, and Design Justice
Feminist HCI meets facebook: Performativity and social networking sites
Practical examples
Doing the Feminist Work in AI: Reflections from an AI Project in Latin America
Feminist HCI and narratives of design semantics in DIY music hardware
Feminist Living Labs as Research Infrastructures for HCI: The Case of a Video Game Company
An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design