Beige by Default
The issue of skin tone inclusivity in product design and a proposal for resolving it in design education and professional practices
C.A. Jantji (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
Annemiek van Boeijen – Mentor (TU Delft - Form and Experience)
A.J.C. Helm – Mentor (TU Delft - Codesigning Social Change)
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Abstract
Past and current product design practices have not been and are not skin tone inclusive. People with darker skin tones are regularly excluded from the design process and the final product. Examples of this are the simple adhesive bandage and the more advanced facial recognition software. This project aimed to change this through an exploration of this type of exclusion, generally caused by designer bias.
Products that are not skin tone inclusive can be clustered into four different categories; Inadequate Color Selection, Failing Technology & Software, Undereducated Service Providers, and Unequal Communication & Representation. The products in these four categories have recurring issues, i.e., things that are consistently faulty. These issues led to thirteen Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines to aid the designer in the design process.
The current Industrial Design Engineering curriculum does not pay any attention to the issue of skin tone inclusivity. The first-year bachelor course Understanding Humans is the ideal place to introduce this topic with the Skin Tone Inclusivity Lesson Plan, to be used during the Wonder Assignment. With four sub-goals; Raise Awareness, Trigger Self-Reflection, Trigger Self-Awareness, and finally, Trigger Inclusive Design Behavior, the students are led through a session that leads to an understanding of the skin tone inclusive design guidelines. This is done incrementally, with the guidelines being introduced during the last activity of the Assignment. Using the three designed components, the Beige by Default website, the Card Set, and the Skin Tone Inclusive Design Guidelines, the students complete different activities to ultimately reach a more inclusive design behavior.