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Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need
An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities, dismantle structural inequality, and advance collective liberation and ecological survival.
What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? “Design justice” is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims explicitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world.
This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people—specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)—and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.
What is the relationship between design, power, and social justice? “Design justice” is an approach to design that is led by marginalized communities and that aims explicitly to challenge, rather than reproduce, structural inequalities. It has emerged from a growing community of designers in various fields who work closely with social movements and community-based organizations around the world.
This book explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people—specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)—and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.
360 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2020
246 people are currently reading
4099 people want to read
About the author
Sasha Costanza-Chock
10 books47 followersSasha Costanza-Chock (pronouns: they/them or she/her) is a scholar, activist, and media-maker, and currently Associate Professor of Civic Media at MIT. They are a Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Faculty Affiliate with the MIT Open Documentary Lab and the MIT Center for Civic Media, and creator of the MIT Codesign Studio (codesign.mit.edu). Their work focuses on social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. Sasha’s first book, Out of the Shadows, Into the Streets: Transmedia Organizing and the Immigrant Rights Movement was published by the MIT Press in 2014. They are a board member of Allied Media Projects (AMP); AMP convenes the annual Allied Media Conference and cultivates media strategies for a more just, creative and collaborative world (alliedmedia.org).
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October 17, 2020
Thought-provoking, if sometimes tedious read on how to make the design process more inclusive and responsible. The anecdotes represent a good mix of failures and successes.
One point I thought was especially interesting was in the example of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation slum toilet challenge, where one team found that users aspired to own sit type toilets despite the documented health benefits of squat toilets. It raises the question of what to do when users want something that is not logically in their interest. This is something I have been thinking about in the design of public policies, such as in California’s Prop 22 about gig economy employee status, where it is reported that the vast majority of drivers want to be independent contractors... but do they know what employee status would actually mean, or have they been swayed by propaganda? There isn’t an easy answer of how to proceed when these sorts of questions arise.
In short, I’d say having a design justice lens means thinking critically about who will be affected by whatever you’re designing and making sure they have a say, and recognizing the nuances and complexity of lived experience (as opposed to theories or models).
One point I thought was especially interesting was in the example of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation slum toilet challenge, where one team found that users aspired to own sit type toilets despite the documented health benefits of squat toilets. It raises the question of what to do when users want something that is not logically in their interest. This is something I have been thinking about in the design of public policies, such as in California’s Prop 22 about gig economy employee status, where it is reported that the vast majority of drivers want to be independent contractors... but do they know what employee status would actually mean, or have they been swayed by propaganda? There isn’t an easy answer of how to proceed when these sorts of questions arise.
In short, I’d say having a design justice lens means thinking critically about who will be affected by whatever you’re designing and making sure they have a say, and recognizing the nuances and complexity of lived experience (as opposed to theories or models).
Read
June 7, 2021As a UX designer at a large tech company, I often wonder about the negative effects my work has on the world, or rather, the effect what I design has on certain people. I'm sure that I haven't had a big positive effect on people, but has the work I've done in some ways negatively impacted people, especially those already disadvantaged in society? As designers, we often talk about tradeoffs. There are tradeoffs in terms of visual and interface decisions (aesthetic appeal vs contrast and legibility, for example), tradeoffs in terms of money-making decisions (how many ads should we show at the top of a search page is a tradeoff between $ and actually being helpful to people), and tradeoffs between who—of all the people that might use the app/site—gets prioritized. This last one, at least to me, is the one we as designers don't speak about enough. We don't acknowledge the ways we prioritize some people over others. We don't explicitly call out who benefits and who might be harmed.
Sasha Costanza-Chock's book attempts to address this head on. "This book is about the relationship between design and power," she begins. "It's a call for us to heed the growing critiques of the ways that design... too often contributes to the reproduction of systemic oppression."
The first chapter quotes the Design Justice Network's Principles in their entirety. If you for some reason can't get a copy of this book, searching and reading those principles could almost function as cliff notes. This part summarizes much of the book to me: "Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face." Some of the principles include things like "We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert." and "We work towards sustainable, community-led and controlled outcomes" (tied closely to the phrase 'Nothing about us without us.') "We look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices." See the full list here: https://designjustice.org/read-the-pr...
Those three particular principles both struck and resonated with me because they seemed to challenge the current process in dramatic ways, but also make so much sense.
The book utilizes and repeatedly returns to Patricia Hill Collin's term 'the matrix of domination' as a conceptual model for designers to hold in mind as they consider who should be centered and who should ultimately be accounted to. This too resonated with me. There are so many ways that as workers in tech, launching products for millions of people to use, that we unwittingly perpetuate systemic injustice and buoy up existing power structures and norms (esp harming B/I/PoC folks, Disabled people, and LGBTQI+ people). Beyond that, the settler colonial spirit feels alive and burning in the boardrooms of Silicon Valley. There's strong competition with local companies all over the world and these American companies are using the advantages of their billion-dollar warchests and haloed brand recognition to dominate wherever they can. One problem is that there's minimal investment in hiring locally, in being led by local communities, and in being accountable to those communities. Products built predominantly by wealthy cis white people are given a quick linguistic translation (often algorithmically) and then immediately shipped to places all over the world without further consideration. I don't know if there's a term for that, but I call it 'digital colonialism' with my friends.
Unfortunately, if you're in a similar situation to me (that is, if you're not a high-level decision maker at your company, but just a worker-bee type whose occasional agitating for change usually gets written off as well-intentioned but not pragmatic in an organization whose unspoken number-one rule is to make money), you may find this book leaves you frustrated with your organization. I've tried to gently prod some leaders in my org towards "prioritizing design work that shifts advantages to those who are currently systematically disadvantaged within the matrix of domination," and while I don't doubt the goodness of my coworkers's hearts, let's just say I don't see big changes to our 'spiral of exclusion' coming down from the top. Not with executive pay packages structured as they are...
My hope, however, is that if enough people read and understand the goodness in the principles here that a collective frustration may boil over into bringing about institutional change in many companies. In the meantime, these principles can be applied—as much as possible without full buy in from the senior leadership of your institution—by each one of us individually.
Chapters overview
Values. What values do we encode and reproduce in the objects and systems that we design?
Practices. Who gets to do design? How do we move toward community control of design processes and practices?
Narratives. What stories do we tell about how things are designed?
Sites. How do we make design sites accessible to those who will be most impacted by design processes?
Pedagogies. How do we teach and learn about design justice?
The book is full of citations of other designers, educators, and activists and my list of books and zines and sites for follow-up reading is waiting for me now. (It's clear that Sasha Costanza-Chock wants to give credit to the many people who have done this work, though much credit should be given to her for bringing much of it together here into something cohesive and powerful.)
--
Other notes and quotes
"Artifacts have politics."
"under neoliberal multicultural capitalism, most of the time designers unintentionally reproduce the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism). "The cult of the new and shiny" - 'making something new is valued more and is better rewarded than caretaking, maintaining, or supporting something old.'
"dysaffordances" - an object that requires some users to misidentify themselves to access its functions (having to choose Male or Female to proceed as a Trans* person; facial detection technology that doesn't recognize dark-skinned faces)
"One-third world" is Chandra Mohanty's reformulation of dated "first world" term
"going slower is worth it to build a better, more just and sustainable world."
Some groups to follow
Algorithmic Justice League
And Also Too
Design Justice Network
https://designjustice.org/zines
blackfeminisms.com
thejustdatalab.com
codingrights.org
https://platform.coop/
stocksy
Resonate.is
Contratados.org
Sasha Costanza-Chock's book attempts to address this head on. "This book is about the relationship between design and power," she begins. "It's a call for us to heed the growing critiques of the ways that design... too often contributes to the reproduction of systemic oppression."
The first chapter quotes the Design Justice Network's Principles in their entirety. If you for some reason can't get a copy of this book, searching and reading those principles could almost function as cliff notes. This part summarizes much of the book to me: "Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face." Some of the principles include things like "We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert." and "We work towards sustainable, community-led and controlled outcomes" (tied closely to the phrase 'Nothing about us without us.') "We look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices." See the full list here: https://designjustice.org/read-the-pr...
Those three particular principles both struck and resonated with me because they seemed to challenge the current process in dramatic ways, but also make so much sense.
The book utilizes and repeatedly returns to Patricia Hill Collin's term 'the matrix of domination' as a conceptual model for designers to hold in mind as they consider who should be centered and who should ultimately be accounted to. This too resonated with me. There are so many ways that as workers in tech, launching products for millions of people to use, that we unwittingly perpetuate systemic injustice and buoy up existing power structures and norms (esp harming B/I/PoC folks, Disabled people, and LGBTQI+ people). Beyond that, the settler colonial spirit feels alive and burning in the boardrooms of Silicon Valley. There's strong competition with local companies all over the world and these American companies are using the advantages of their billion-dollar warchests and haloed brand recognition to dominate wherever they can. One problem is that there's minimal investment in hiring locally, in being led by local communities, and in being accountable to those communities. Products built predominantly by wealthy cis white people are given a quick linguistic translation (often algorithmically) and then immediately shipped to places all over the world without further consideration. I don't know if there's a term for that, but I call it 'digital colonialism' with my friends.
Unfortunately, if you're in a similar situation to me (that is, if you're not a high-level decision maker at your company, but just a worker-bee type whose occasional agitating for change usually gets written off as well-intentioned but not pragmatic in an organization whose unspoken number-one rule is to make money), you may find this book leaves you frustrated with your organization. I've tried to gently prod some leaders in my org towards "prioritizing design work that shifts advantages to those who are currently systematically disadvantaged within the matrix of domination," and while I don't doubt the goodness of my coworkers's hearts, let's just say I don't see big changes to our 'spiral of exclusion' coming down from the top. Not with executive pay packages structured as they are...
My hope, however, is that if enough people read and understand the goodness in the principles here that a collective frustration may boil over into bringing about institutional change in many companies. In the meantime, these principles can be applied—as much as possible without full buy in from the senior leadership of your institution—by each one of us individually.
Chapters overview
Values. What values do we encode and reproduce in the objects and systems that we design?
Practices. Who gets to do design? How do we move toward community control of design processes and practices?
Narratives. What stories do we tell about how things are designed?
Sites. How do we make design sites accessible to those who will be most impacted by design processes?
Pedagogies. How do we teach and learn about design justice?
The book is full of citations of other designers, educators, and activists and my list of books and zines and sites for follow-up reading is waiting for me now. (It's clear that Sasha Costanza-Chock wants to give credit to the many people who have done this work, though much credit should be given to her for bringing much of it together here into something cohesive and powerful.)
--
Other notes and quotes
"Artifacts have politics."
"under neoliberal multicultural capitalism, most of the time designers unintentionally reproduce the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism). "The cult of the new and shiny" - 'making something new is valued more and is better rewarded than caretaking, maintaining, or supporting something old.'
"dysaffordances" - an object that requires some users to misidentify themselves to access its functions (having to choose Male or Female to proceed as a Trans* person; facial detection technology that doesn't recognize dark-skinned faces)
"One-third world" is Chandra Mohanty's reformulation of dated "first world" term
"going slower is worth it to build a better, more just and sustainable world."
Some groups to follow
Algorithmic Justice League
And Also Too
Design Justice Network
https://designjustice.org/zines
blackfeminisms.com
thejustdatalab.com
codingrights.org
https://platform.coop/
stocksy
Resonate.is
Contratados.org
March 10, 2020
Design Justice is required reading for all designers.
The book explores how design, both the product and practice, reproduces social inequality. But, more importantly, the book also offers a visionary framework designers can use to elevate their craft and help rebuild the world.
Costanza-Chock deftly weaves together ideas from fields like Black feminist scholarship and disability activism to show how normative values in design erase certain groups of people (e.g., airport security scanners flagging and subjecting trans and nonbinary travelers to invasive, traumatic body searches). Costanza-Chock also shows how the design industry's movement towards more inclusive and participatory practices often replicates the power dynamics and inequities they were meant to address. For example, disability simulations, where a nondisabled person tries using a wheelchair to develop empathy for disabled users, encourages solutions that modify the disabled person's body rather than their inaccessible environment. To counteract this, Design Justice offers guidelines that center the historically marginalized and their communities' existing knowledge and practices.
Despite the breadth of the book's philosophical underpinnings, the writing is approachable and engaging. Costanza-Chock illustrates their arguments with vivid examples, many of which are grounded in their activist background and personal biography. The book is a fantastic mix of theory, practice, and inspiration.
The book explores how design, both the product and practice, reproduces social inequality. But, more importantly, the book also offers a visionary framework designers can use to elevate their craft and help rebuild the world.
Costanza-Chock deftly weaves together ideas from fields like Black feminist scholarship and disability activism to show how normative values in design erase certain groups of people (e.g., airport security scanners flagging and subjecting trans and nonbinary travelers to invasive, traumatic body searches). Costanza-Chock also shows how the design industry's movement towards more inclusive and participatory practices often replicates the power dynamics and inequities they were meant to address. For example, disability simulations, where a nondisabled person tries using a wheelchair to develop empathy for disabled users, encourages solutions that modify the disabled person's body rather than their inaccessible environment. To counteract this, Design Justice offers guidelines that center the historically marginalized and their communities' existing knowledge and practices.
Despite the breadth of the book's philosophical underpinnings, the writing is approachable and engaging. Costanza-Chock illustrates their arguments with vivid examples, many of which are grounded in their activist background and personal biography. The book is a fantastic mix of theory, practice, and inspiration.
January 10, 2021
This one has been my favorite of the tech + social justice books I’ve read. It’s clearly structured and loaded with examples of what various organizations are or aren’t doing to work towards design justice. Whereas other books I’ve read focused on the many problems in tech, this one also had enough examples of solutions and what people are currently working on so that the problems felt tractable rather than despairing.
May 22, 2024
Very compelling and understandable book that is a great resource for designers engaged with justice in any way, whether it is by tackling oppression, surfacing marginalised voices or critically examining existing power structures. I will definitely use it a lot as a reference material for teaching and grounding my own practice. While some of the messages felt very obvious, it was very helpful to see them articulated on the page with clear examples. I was particularly inspired by the chapter on teaching and pedagogies, which I will use to evaluate and reshape my own teaching practices. Unfortunately, like many of the influential design books, it does draw mainly on US culture and examples from the US (e.g. covering the Trump administration), which means that it will need a layer of translation for my own context. Nevertheless, it did give me a clear vocabulary and inspiration to build on. I will warmly recommend this to my colleagues and students.
As a final note, and this is probably due to the publisher rather than the author, I did find the choice of handling the references interesting for a book that talks a lot about giving credit where it's due. Finding a number at the end of a sentence that leads to a note at the end of the book that gives the shorthand reference to then find the full reference in the References was quite burdensome and meant that many times I did not bother to find out the author names for most of the work mentioned throughout the book.
As a final note, and this is probably due to the publisher rather than the author, I did find the choice of handling the references interesting for a book that talks a lot about giving credit where it's due. Finding a number at the end of a sentence that leads to a note at the end of the book that gives the shorthand reference to then find the full reference in the References was quite burdensome and meant that many times I did not bother to find out the author names for most of the work mentioned throughout the book.
June 15, 2022
Wasn't what I was expecting, but I liked it okay. Thought it was going to be about architecture/design of spaces but was actually about design of technologies and design of methods (how to design strategies of collaboration between design professionals and community members). I think the sections about pedagogies were helpful to evaluate how my current and future courses will align (or not) with design justice methods- hopefully they do!
July 27, 2022
Very good book with lots of great stuff everyone should know. But it also made me feel stupid and it was very hard for me to understand. I will probably have to reread this one to get everything.
May 2, 2020
This is an excellent book for academics and design practitioners alike and I guess it is well readable for both.
The book is concerned with design ethics today including context like large digital cooperation, globally distributed (click-) work, design thinking and hackathons. The perspective is intersectional and draws upon the authors experiences in participatory design in the “design justice network” , a “international group of people and organizations committed to rethinking design processes so they center people who are often marginalized by design.”. It is both very critical of many design practices, but does also suggest changes and alternatives.
It was great that many concepts got discussed, including human centered design staples like personas and affordances. I would have wished that some concepts would have gotten a longer discussion like the origins of affordances in Gibson’s psychology of perception, or the Scandinavian roots of participatory design. Due to the broad coverage, the single topics are not treated in all their depth, and I think this is a good choice for a book also targeted at design practitioners. The book is US-centric, but the author is aware of it, and sometimes hints at different contexts.
The focus on “Communities” of affected people is often repeated. Yet I whished for more discussion on who gets to be a community in the first place. For example open source projects creators or people on forums on the web are referred as being “community” but yield often power and privilege, unlike many of the communities discussed in the book’s examples.
The books discussions of compromises and mutual negotiation of duties and benefits of participants in the projects were excellent. They both prepare for situations that are not clear cut and encourage to find a mutually beneficial and fair solution:It is clearly not written from a armchair perspective but informed by practice.
I appreciate that the book has a section which briefly lists all the acronyms used. It is not super heavvy on them and they might have just been written out, though.
The endnote-system used in the book was tedious of me: It has per-chapter-enumerated endnotes, collected at the end of the book, either leading to comments or references. So to find 49 of chapter 3, you go to the end of the book and first find the chapter 3 endnote and the the 49th of the references (and I usually am in chapter 2 or 4 endnotes, which I notice when its number 49 does not match), just to notice it is just a Name/Year leading to a reference in the list of references… The ebook might be much easier, there.
The book is concerned with design ethics today including context like large digital cooperation, globally distributed (click-) work, design thinking and hackathons. The perspective is intersectional and draws upon the authors experiences in participatory design in the “design justice network” , a “international group of people and organizations committed to rethinking design processes so they center people who are often marginalized by design.”. It is both very critical of many design practices, but does also suggest changes and alternatives.
It was great that many concepts got discussed, including human centered design staples like personas and affordances. I would have wished that some concepts would have gotten a longer discussion like the origins of affordances in Gibson’s psychology of perception, or the Scandinavian roots of participatory design. Due to the broad coverage, the single topics are not treated in all their depth, and I think this is a good choice for a book also targeted at design practitioners. The book is US-centric, but the author is aware of it, and sometimes hints at different contexts.
The focus on “Communities” of affected people is often repeated. Yet I whished for more discussion on who gets to be a community in the first place. For example open source projects creators or people on forums on the web are referred as being “community” but yield often power and privilege, unlike many of the communities discussed in the book’s examples.
The books discussions of compromises and mutual negotiation of duties and benefits of participants in the projects were excellent. They both prepare for situations that are not clear cut and encourage to find a mutually beneficial and fair solution:It is clearly not written from a armchair perspective but informed by practice.
I appreciate that the book has a section which briefly lists all the acronyms used. It is not super heavvy on them and they might have just been written out, though.
The endnote-system used in the book was tedious of me: It has per-chapter-enumerated endnotes, collected at the end of the book, either leading to comments or references. So to find 49 of chapter 3, you go to the end of the book and first find the chapter 3 endnote and the the 49th of the references (and I usually am in chapter 2 or 4 endnotes, which I notice when its number 49 does not match), just to notice it is just a Name/Year leading to a reference in the list of references… The ebook might be much easier, there.
May 4, 2023
Starting from the famous affordance theory, Design Justice sheds light on structural inequality today’s society holds; many “best practices” of the design process led by white supremacy, settler colonialism, and capitalist society simply reproduces the skewed power dynamics, and they keep encouraging the unfair distribution of tech & design’s benefits and burdens. But, we design and develop for what, and to whom? It’s clear creating with a marginalized population (co-designing), preferably based on physical interactions, is the best and only way towards liberation. By contrast, unfortunately, organizations and professionals I’ve personally engaged with as a developer often overlook such situated knowledge. What’s worse, they don’t intentionally act in such a way, and it is just a norm capitalist society relies on, namely an endless search for efficiency. Based on her deep knowledge and experiences working in the Design Justice community and teaching the practices at MIT, the book nicely surfaces these key discussion points with rich reference materials. Not to mention the lists of concrete suggestions motivate readers to practice design justice immediately. I say #TechWontBuildIt, and we need #DesignJustice.
June 16, 2021
okay this one's an absolute banger and I think everyone should read this along with black software if you're interested in community and thinking that the way design is done in the us isn't built right (it's not). Costanza-Chock is a fantastic writer and weaves together different narratives and perspectives to show that the world is built for those at the top with the most power. She also provides actions at the end for ways to take the initial next steps in a world where design justice isn't a dream, but a reality.
Read
August 8, 2021Fantastic overall! I especially recommend chapters 2 (Design Practices: “Nothing about Us without Us”) and 5 (Design Pedagogies: “There’s Something Wrong with This System!”). I am a little disappointed with the handful of misspellings of non-English words, though.
October 9, 2024
Must read for tech designers. I’m feeling incredibly inspired and motivated to take the learnings a step further!
March 1, 2021
Fascinating, tedious, infuriating and humbling by turns, this is a book that repays careful reading, underlining, dog-ears and scribbled notes in the margins. For some readers it will be top-heavy with unfamiliar terms from gender and race studies like cisgender, trans*, heteropatriarchy, matrix of domination and settler colonialism -a glossary of terms is included at the end of the book which is somewhat, but not always helpful. Sasha Costanza-Chock is “an engaged scholar and design practitioner” and, I believe, an activist and these facets show up clearly and quite explicitly throughout the book. I feel it is important to emphasize, from the very start that one of the outstanding features of this book, is its extremely rich set of references.
It starts out with an interesting example of biases built into technology, in this case, airport body scanners, which as the author points out “...operate according to a binary and cis-normative gender construct” complemented by searches which are not infrequently racially or culturally biased or even biased against disabled people, “...who are likely to be flagged as risky if they have non-normative body shapes and/or use prosthetics...” In lieu of a definition, Costanza-Chock reviews the ten Design Justice Network principles which underpin her book:
The introduction also briefly overviews a number of closely related design schools and design definitions. A key takeway from the book is its section on intersectorial analysis.
The book is further divided into five chapters and a section on conclusions and “Directions for Future Work”. The chapters respectively cover design justice values, practices, narratives, sites, and pedagogies.
In her chapter on design values, the author reviews and criticizes how values are used in such approaches as Value Sensitive Design (VSD), the disability justice movement, universal design, inclusive design and autonomous design. For example, she claims, that in regard to values:
Chapter 2 is about design practices and starts off by describing examples of unjust “raced and gendered patterns that persist across nearly all sectors of the economy.” Sasha Costanza-Chock also describes how:
What about the teaching design justice? In Chapter 5 , Design Pedagogies, the author reports on her experience teaching Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio, an MIT undergraduate and graduate project-oriented course:
It starts out with an interesting example of biases built into technology, in this case, airport body scanners, which as the author points out “...operate according to a binary and cis-normative gender construct” complemented by searches which are not infrequently racially or culturally biased or even biased against disabled people, “...who are likely to be flagged as risky if they have non-normative body shapes and/or use prosthetics...” In lieu of a definition, Costanza-Chock reviews the ten Design Justice Network principles which underpin her book:
Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.The full set of principles can be found at https://designjustice.org/1. We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities[...]
2. We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process.
3. We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer.
5. We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert.
8. We work towards sustainable, community-led and -controlled outcomes.
9. We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and to each other.
The introduction also briefly overviews a number of closely related design schools and design definitions. A key takeway from the book is its section on intersectorial analysis.
The book is further divided into five chapters and a section on conclusions and “Directions for Future Work”. The chapters respectively cover design justice values, practices, narratives, sites, and pedagogies.
In her chapter on design values, the author reviews and criticizes how values are used in such approaches as Value Sensitive Design (VSD), the disability justice movement, universal design, inclusive design and autonomous design. For example, she claims, that in regard to values:
VSD is descriptive rather than normative: it urges designers to be intentional about encoding values in designed systems but does not propose any particular set of values at alll […] VSD never questions the standpoint of the professional designer, doesn’t call for community inclusion in the design process (let alone community accountability or control), and doesn’t require an impact analysis of the distribution of material and symbolic benefits that are generated through design. Values are treated as disembodied abstractions, to be codified in libraries from which designers might draw to inform project requirements[...]In a sense, Design Justice it grows out of Participatory Design and is more akin to the EU’s Responsible Innovation (RI) approach, but goes well beyond RI in the political role and importance played by non-mainstream and indigenous communities.
Chapter 2 is about design practices and starts off by describing examples of unjust “raced and gendered patterns that persist across nearly all sectors of the economy.” Sasha Costanza-Chock also describes how:
...designers tend to unconsciously default to imagined users whose experiences are similar to their own. This means that users are most often assumed to be members of the dominant […] group: in the United States, this means (cis)male, white, heterosexual, “able-bodied”, literate, college-educated, not a young child and not elderly, with broadband internet access, with a smartphone, and so on […] Unfortunately, this produces a spiral of exclusion as design industries center the most socially and economically powerful users, while other users are systematically excluded on multiple levels: their user stories, preferred platforms, aesthetics, language, and so on, are not taken into consideration.She criticizes what she calls “stand-in strategies to represent communities taht are not really included in the design process”, particularly user personas, especially if they are, as they often are, “...created out of thin air by members of the design team (if not autogenerated by a service like Userforge), based on their own assumptions or stereotypes about groups of people...”. Other unsuccessful stand-in techniques like the designation of a “user diversity advocate”, real-world user testing or even disability simulations:
None of these techniques are as good as the incluion of diverse users on the design team throughout the process.This chapter looks into the design process, as one of the key sections’ subtitles has it: “From participation to accountability to ownership”. Userr participation has been espoused by approaches such as participatory design, sociotechnical user design, user-led innovation, user-centered design, human-centered design, inclusive design and codesign among others. Costanza-Chock details why and how design justice requires much higher levels of community involvement and power based on the creation and use of formal, intitutionalized mechanisms of community accountabily and control, as recommended by the T4SJ Project’s recommendations for achieving community accountability. In short, as Costanza-Chock remarks in the closing section of this chapter:
Beyond employment equity, design justice requires full inclusion of, accountability to, and ultimately control by people with direct lived experience of the conditions the design team is trying to change [...I]t also focuses on concrete mechanisms for community control […]Chapter 3 looks at design narratives, paying close attention to
...who receives attention and credit for design work, how we frame design problems and challenges, how we scope design solutions and what stories we tell about how design processes operate.”It analyzes appropriative design strategies:
In design justice, those whose lived experience guides the process are recognized as codesigners; they become co-owners of designed products, platforms, systems, and other outputs and also become coauthors of the story about the project.The author also pays close attention to corporate misappropriation of innovations and the misrepresentation and downplaying of the role of social movements in innovation. The author’s critical analysis of narratives in the Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge is particularly noteworthy and memorable. Wrapping up the case study, she says:
Design justice considers “Who contributed? to be a critical question for the evaluation of any given design project.
The Gates Challenge […] ignores existing solutions; assumes that solutions will come from university labs far from the social realities of those without access to sanitation; makes no stipulation for, or even suggestion of, a codesign approach that would include local expertise and/or tacit and experiential knowledge; and makes no mention of [such ley problems as] adoption, usage or maintenance[…] In one of the most insightful articles about the challenge, Lloyd Alter writes that the winning projects are all expensive, complicated and difficult to maintain […] Some are potentially deadly: several superheat feces[…] Alter also writes about the wasted water and energy involved in all flush toilet systems.Chapter 4 covers design sites and how hackerspaces, fablabs, hackathons and discotechs work, are used and abused.
What about the teaching design justice? In Chapter 5 , Design Pedagogies, the author reports on her experience teaching Civic Media Collaborative Design Studio, an MIT undergraduate and graduate project-oriented course:
We will be working to design and develop real world projects, grounded in the needs of CBOs. As a student you will be part of a co-design team led by a partner organization […] Our goal is twofold: to develop an understanding of the ways that technology design processes often replicate existing power inequalities, while at the same time moving beyond critique towards community coauthorship, as much as possible within the constraints of any given project.The chapter richly reports on student experiences and projects. She bases her course on Seymour Papert’s and Michael Resnick’s constructionism and Paolo Freire’s ideas and principles on real world action-reflection cycles for transformative popular education as set forth in his most well-known work Pedagogy of the Oppressed and provides background on popular technology education initiatives in different countries. Sacha Costanza-Chock provides an extremely honest and pragmatic appraisal of the challenges of teaching Design Justice:
I have organized a discussion of each challenge, with examples drawn from student case studies. I have placed them in dialogue with the Design Justice Network Principles….This makes for especially interesting reading for anyone who has had to struggle to teach a minimally “realistic” project-based software engineering, information systems engineering and in general any such engineering design course. For example, the following observations will certainly strike very familiar chords:
1. It’s hard to overstate the importance of honestly asking: “What will community members [external stakeholders in more traditional parlance] get out of the process?”There are, of course a number of other issues specific to design justice which Costanza-Chock vividly brings up. Finally the author also briefly analyzes what what aspects of computers should be included in popular education and what is the best way to go about doing it -she rather disappointingly appears to focus more on teaching coding even though it must be admitted that she argues strongly for trascending teaching programming:
2. [T]he start-up discourse that valorizes failure can be particularly harmful in design justice processes. Start-up ideology such as “move fast, break things” and “fail hard, fail fast” can become a justification for working styles […] that involves making mistakes in the real world at the expense of community partners
3. [D]ecision making in any design project involves a delicate balance between the desire to be inclusive, collaborative, and accountable, and the need to get things done.
4. When student teams spend too much time researching, theorizing, analyzing and ideating, but fail to move quickly enough to mock-ups or prototypes, they lose invaluable opportunities to iterate on the project based on user testing and feedback.
5. It’s very easy for design teams operating on a semester schedule to run out of time.
6. Because design justice pedagogies emphasize a balance of process and product, rather than simply valuing “final” products, regular assessment of student work and of the design process can help improve the overall experience for everyone. Leaving assessment to the end of the process, or just to one or two key moments (such as mid-term and the end of the semester), is a mistake. To further complicate matters, students do not always appreciate pedagogy that emphasizes process, real-world contexts, challenges and partnership; instead many desire a design studio that allows them to freely explore the limits of their creativity, with evaluation based on a final product.
7. [The need for steering] students away from the pitfalls of tech solutionism and technochauvinism [and the NIH syndrome to explore] whether the design team might be able to amplify, remix, or otherwise repurpose existing projects, practices, applications or tools, rather than build something new.
[Might we advocate that people learn to code in ways that also push them to think more critically about software, technology, and design and that prepare them to help reshape technology in the service of human liberation and ecological sustainability […]?It is worth wrapping up this review with a final, optimistic quote from Sasha Costanza-Chock’s book:
Design justice is a framework that can help guide us as we seek to teach computing, software development and design in ways that support rather than suppress, the development of critical consciousness and that provide scaffolding for learnerr’s connections to the social movements that are necessary to transform our world.
November 20, 2021
I liked it. I would recommend it to any person, lady, lad.
December 12, 2023
A bit tedious (I like my nonfiction to read more fast paced) but very informative. I found so many interesting overlaps between how to think about technology in the ways of the book but also more broadly in the fields I work in (survey/research design, databases, the role of statistics, etc.). Would recommend even if it felt a teeny bit tedious ☺️
August 30, 2021
Introduction: #TravellingWhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination
p.6 – Design Justice Network Principles – Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.
1. We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems.
2. We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process.
3. We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer
4. We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process
5. We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert
6. We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experiences, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process
7. We share design knowledge and tools with our communities
8. We work towards sustainable, community-led and controlled outcomes
9. We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and each other
10. Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, Indigenous, and local knowledge and practices.
p.12 – Design Justice: Defining Key Terms
Design – a plan or scheme conceived in the mind and intended for subsequent execution; the preliminary conception of an idea that is to be carried into effect by action; a project. (Oxford English Dictionary)
As a verb, design originates from the Latin de signum (“to mark out”) or designo (“mark out, point out, describe”). In early use, it described the act of making a meaningful physical mark on an object. Signum evolved, mostly through French, into words such as “signify, assign, designate, and signal” and this sense is maintained today in the idea that designers sketch, draw, and mark out representations that will later become objects, buildings, or systems.
p.13 – In common usage, design carries multiple meanings. We use it to refer to a plan for an artifact, building or system; a pattern (such as a floral print on a textile); the composition of a work of art; or the shape, appearance, or features of an object. It also refers to the practice, field, or subfields of design work (e.g. “Icelandic design dominates global furniture markets.”).
p.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 is also a growing community of practice that aims to ensure a more equitable distribution of design’s benefits and burdens’ meaningful participation in design decisions; and recognition of community-based, Indigenous, and diasporic design traditions, knowledge, and practices.
This description of design justice also resonates strongly with the current widespread rise of intersectional feminist thought and action, visible in recent years in the United States in the emergence of networked social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, the immigrant rights movement, the fight for LGBTQI+ and Two-Spirited rights, gender justice, and trans* liberation, Indigenous struggles such as #IdleNoMore and #StandWithStandingRock, disability justice work, the #MeToo movement, the environmental justice movement, and new formations in the labour movement such as platforms cooperativism and #TechWontBuildIt. These movements fight and resist the resurgent extreme right, and also to advance concrete proposals for a more just and sustainable world. They are growing, and in 2018 provided the momentum for a historic midterm election that won record numbers of seats for leftist, queer people, and B/I/PoC in the US Congress.
1 – Design Values: Hard-Coding Liberation?
p.53 – Inclusive Design – One group that has worked steadily to advance design practice that is not universalizing is the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC). IDRC defines inclusive design as follows: “design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.”
2 – Design Practices: “Nothing About Us Without Us”
p.85 – Participatory Design – The proposal to include end-users in the design process has a long history. The “participatory turn” in technology design, or at least the idea that design teams cannot operate in isolation from end users, has become increasingly popular over time in many subfields of design theory and practice. These include participatory design (PD), user-led innovation, user-centered design (UCD), human-centered design (HCD), inclusive design, and codesign, among a growing list of terms and acronyms.
5 – Design Pedagogies: “There’s Something Wrong with This System!”
p.174 – “Critical pedagogy seeks to transform consciousness, to provide students with ways of knowing that enable them to know themselves better and live in the world more fully.” (bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress)
“I insist that the object of all true education is not to make people carpenters, it is to make carpenters people.” (W. E. B. Du Bois, The Talented Tenth)
p.178 – the Highlander Research and Education Center, founded in 1932 by educator Myles Horton, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center that has used pop ed for decades to build grassroots leadership within movements for civil rights, organized labor, and environmental justice, among others. Horton taught and worked with Civil Rights luminaries including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and John Lewis. Their key principles:
1. Education is never neutral: it either maintains the current system of domination, or it is designed to liberate people
2. Relevance: Pop Ed engages with issues that people care deeply about
3. Problem-posing: all participation have the capacity to think, question, and act, and Pop Ed is about identifying the root causes of problems that people wan to change
4. Dialogue: no one knows everything, but together we know a lot, if we listen to each other
5. Praxis: real learning takes place through the cycle of reflection and action to transform the world
6. Transformation: Pop Ed is about engaging communities to transform individuals, communities, the environment, and the broader society
p.185 – Decolonizing Design Pedagogies – Along with the shifts in design pedagogy toward community-led processes, intersectional feminist principles, and learning by doing, the idea of decolonizing design pedagogy is gaining steam.
p.186 – Decolonizing design involves decentering Western approaches to design pedagogy, while centering design approaches, histories, theories, and practices rooted in Indigenous communities.
Design historian and schola Victor Margolin, in an influential article titled “Teaching Design History,” advocates a shift away from Eurocentric, modernist approaches to design history and toward a truly a truly global approach that includes design practices from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He cautions against sprinkling “non-Western” design objects on top of an already existing Eurocentric curriculum, and argues that “design is no less than the conception and planning of the artificial world. Its products include objects, process, systems, and environments; in short, everything.” Margolin feels that an emphasis on rethinking historical narratives to center formerly marginalized or erased design practices, rather than simply including designed objects from more cultures, can help avoid this pitfall.
p.208 – Make All People Good Coders, or Make All Coders Good People? – A century ago, sociologist, historian, and Black liberation activist W.E.B. Du Bois famously engaged in a sustained debate with educator, author, and presidential advisor Booker T. Washington over the nature of the education system that was to be put in place for Black people after the end of slavery, the collapse of Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow. At the turn of the century, Washington created a system of vocational schools that focused on teaching Black people marketable skills for employability in agriculture and industry. Du Bois, on the other hand, argued for the creation of Black liberal arts colleges to foster a new generation of Black leaders, critical thinkers, cultural luminaries, and (above all else) teachers, who would be able to bring the benefits of education to all Black people. For Du Bois, in a phrase that he would repeat in multiple speeches and writings, “The object of education was not to make people carpenters, but to make carpenters people.”
The ability to design new technologies, platforms, and systems is undoubtedly a key in skill in today’s economy, and the democratization of this ability is one key goal of design justice.
p.6 – Design Justice Network Principles – Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.
1. We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems.
2. We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process.
3. We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer
4. We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process
5. We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert
6. We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experiences, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process
7. We share design knowledge and tools with our communities
8. We work towards sustainable, community-led and controlled outcomes
9. We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and each other
10. Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, Indigenous, and local knowledge and practices.
p.12 – Design Justice: Defining Key Terms
Design – a plan or scheme conceived in the mind and intended for subsequent execution; the preliminary conception of an idea that is to be carried into effect by action; a project. (Oxford English Dictionary)
As a verb, design originates from the Latin de signum (“to mark out”) or designo (“mark out, point out, describe”). In early use, it described the act of making a meaningful physical mark on an object. Signum evolved, mostly through French, into words such as “signify, assign, designate, and signal” and this sense is maintained today in the idea that designers sketch, draw, and mark out representations that will later become objects, buildings, or systems.
p.13 – In common usage, design carries multiple meanings. We use it to refer to a plan for an artifact, building or system; a pattern (such as a floral print on a textile); the composition of a work of art; or the shape, appearance, or features of an object. It also refers to the practice, field, or subfields of design work (e.g. “Icelandic design dominates global furniture markets.”).
p.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 is also a growing community of practice that aims to ensure a more equitable distribution of design’s benefits and burdens’ meaningful participation in design decisions; and recognition of community-based, Indigenous, and diasporic design traditions, knowledge, and practices.
This description of design justice also resonates strongly with the current widespread rise of intersectional feminist thought and action, visible in recent years in the United States in the emergence of networked social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, the immigrant rights movement, the fight for LGBTQI+ and Two-Spirited rights, gender justice, and trans* liberation, Indigenous struggles such as #IdleNoMore and #StandWithStandingRock, disability justice work, the #MeToo movement, the environmental justice movement, and new formations in the labour movement such as platforms cooperativism and #TechWontBuildIt. These movements fight and resist the resurgent extreme right, and also to advance concrete proposals for a more just and sustainable world. They are growing, and in 2018 provided the momentum for a historic midterm election that won record numbers of seats for leftist, queer people, and B/I/PoC in the US Congress.
1 – Design Values: Hard-Coding Liberation?
p.53 – Inclusive Design – One group that has worked steadily to advance design practice that is not universalizing is the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC). IDRC defines inclusive design as follows: “design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.”
2 – Design Practices: “Nothing About Us Without Us”
p.85 – Participatory Design – The proposal to include end-users in the design process has a long history. The “participatory turn” in technology design, or at least the idea that design teams cannot operate in isolation from end users, has become increasingly popular over time in many subfields of design theory and practice. These include participatory design (PD), user-led innovation, user-centered design (UCD), human-centered design (HCD), inclusive design, and codesign, among a growing list of terms and acronyms.
5 – Design Pedagogies: “There’s Something Wrong with This System!”
p.174 – “Critical pedagogy seeks to transform consciousness, to provide students with ways of knowing that enable them to know themselves better and live in the world more fully.” (bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress)
“I insist that the object of all true education is not to make people carpenters, it is to make carpenters people.” (W. E. B. Du Bois, The Talented Tenth)
p.178 – the Highlander Research and Education Center, founded in 1932 by educator Myles Horton, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center that has used pop ed for decades to build grassroots leadership within movements for civil rights, organized labor, and environmental justice, among others. Horton taught and worked with Civil Rights luminaries including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and John Lewis. Their key principles:
1. Education is never neutral: it either maintains the current system of domination, or it is designed to liberate people
2. Relevance: Pop Ed engages with issues that people care deeply about
3. Problem-posing: all participation have the capacity to think, question, and act, and Pop Ed is about identifying the root causes of problems that people wan to change
4. Dialogue: no one knows everything, but together we know a lot, if we listen to each other
5. Praxis: real learning takes place through the cycle of reflection and action to transform the world
6. Transformation: Pop Ed is about engaging communities to transform individuals, communities, the environment, and the broader society
p.185 – Decolonizing Design Pedagogies – Along with the shifts in design pedagogy toward community-led processes, intersectional feminist principles, and learning by doing, the idea of decolonizing design pedagogy is gaining steam.
p.186 – Decolonizing design involves decentering Western approaches to design pedagogy, while centering design approaches, histories, theories, and practices rooted in Indigenous communities.
Design historian and schola Victor Margolin, in an influential article titled “Teaching Design History,” advocates a shift away from Eurocentric, modernist approaches to design history and toward a truly a truly global approach that includes design practices from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He cautions against sprinkling “non-Western” design objects on top of an already existing Eurocentric curriculum, and argues that “design is no less than the conception and planning of the artificial world. Its products include objects, process, systems, and environments; in short, everything.” Margolin feels that an emphasis on rethinking historical narratives to center formerly marginalized or erased design practices, rather than simply including designed objects from more cultures, can help avoid this pitfall.
p.208 – Make All People Good Coders, or Make All Coders Good People? – A century ago, sociologist, historian, and Black liberation activist W.E.B. Du Bois famously engaged in a sustained debate with educator, author, and presidential advisor Booker T. Washington over the nature of the education system that was to be put in place for Black people after the end of slavery, the collapse of Reconstruction, and the rise of Jim Crow. At the turn of the century, Washington created a system of vocational schools that focused on teaching Black people marketable skills for employability in agriculture and industry. Du Bois, on the other hand, argued for the creation of Black liberal arts colleges to foster a new generation of Black leaders, critical thinkers, cultural luminaries, and (above all else) teachers, who would be able to bring the benefits of education to all Black people. For Du Bois, in a phrase that he would repeat in multiple speeches and writings, “The object of education was not to make people carpenters, but to make carpenters people.”
The ability to design new technologies, platforms, and systems is undoubtedly a key in skill in today’s economy, and the democratization of this ability is one key goal of design justice.
October 2, 2024
A thoughtful book about the way in which the world is designed and how, the design decisions reinforce oppression in a heteronormative white supremacist patriarchal world.
I've been interested in design recently, having joined a 'Service Design' team at work and was recommended this book by a colleague. The book reflects some of our conversations as we discuss the ethics of what we do, what we 'change' and also how we interrelate to each other as a team and involve others.
I won't bore everyone with the content of our discussions, but about half way through this book I ended up telling my colleague that this book was laying bare some of the tensions I had been feeling recently.
The book aims to present the concepts of Design Justice (the principles can be read here and serve as a good primer https://designjustice.org/read-the-pr...). It also shares how the world around us is designed in a certain way that excludes, omits or commits microaggressions against marginalised people continually. It makes sense that if the world is run by those in power, that the design of everyday things, processes, technology and so on is designed by and for those people.
I could take the view that much of this is intentional. A 'feature' of an exploitative capitalist system, and it's true that there are plenty of products and services out there which intentionally harm others (anti-homeless architecture, 'nudge' theory government benefit systems, prisons etc.) What I am perhaps more interested in, are the norms, the underlying thinking that unintentionally causes harm because they either do not involve a wider group impacted by design, or they just don't think of it. Examples include, scanners at airports which assume a person is male or female based on their body shape conflicting with the world view and perspective of the security staff, video games where protagonists were almost exclusively male, telling girls and women, 'this isn't for you'. Soap dispensers in bathrooms that cannot sense black skin...these micro aggressions are everywhere.
It's weird, but whilst I have been reading this book I have been observing how design decisions (intentional and otherwise) exclude people. We have to ask ourselves about where we make trade-offs in utility. Years ago bars, clubs, restaurants, public buildings were often inaccessible for physically disabled people but now these places are often designed and built so everyone can enjoy them. That doesn't mean we get rid of stairs in homes as a design feature? More that we consider when building a home or any building, 'how will people not like me access this building'.
I really enjoyed the critique of some of the activities which go into design which mean to be inclusive but fail to be. For instance 'empathy mapping', and 'user personas'. I'm not suggesting these aren't worth doing because they are, but they still are problematic. I'm a white able bodied man. If I am helping design a service, I can empathise with how it feels for people who will access it who are not like me. I can imagine what it is like to wait forever, struggling with technology as an old man. I can imagine how hard a service is to access if English isn't my first language and it's good that I can consider this (seriously this would be a million times better than what many do), but the key point is, that I am not an elderly man, I am not a non-native English speaker so I am guessing, not truly understanding. The book refers to examples of able bodied people sitting in a wheelchair to navigate the design of something - they mean well, but they can only view the world in an able bodied way, they can't understand what a person who uses a wheelchair will experience or how they will adapt.
The theme draws heavily on black feminist intersectional theory, and it is a very US centric book which will need a little bit of adaptation to other cultures. As is wont with much American analysis class is mentioned but it seems given relatively short shrift. That isn't a negative per se as I think the key thinking is applicable but context seems to matter an awful lot. Some of the points feel repeated and laboured, and I guess the book runs out of steam towards the end and feels a little repetitive. Some of this can be condensed.
The author's labour in acknowledging the work of others is sterling, as are the many examples of both poor design and also attempts to do things differently, participating with others communally. There is a significant nod to anarchist activism and ways of organising non-hierarchically, and exploring ways of communal and consensual decision making and some of the challenges with this. Even in areas where the author feels something is a positive, there are appropriate critiques and reflections - I don't see this as a plea for perfection, more a recognition that we live in an imperfect world. She doesn't make the link explicitly, but I can see a strong focus on anarchist pre-configuration here, and how we need to design the world we want to live in.
I'm looking forward to having a long chat with my friend about this. It's certainly an interesting book, if not the most thrilling, feeling a little dry at times and once you start understanding the core theme of the book you'll see design decisions everywhere and think about them.
(A recent example, I tried to buy concert tickets a week ago and it was one of them with a number of presales tied to product ownership / membership which exclude people. By the time general sale came along all the remaining tickets were only available to people with a certain credit card. Now the ticket seller and credit card sees this partnership as mutually exclusive - from now on you'll get a credit card with us so you don't miss out again. That's shitty, but what's more shitty is hypothetically a person could have saved up, had a poor credit record, and be unable to get a credit card - even if they can afford the ticket, the lack of access to credit excludes people - about 20% in the UK. It may be capitalist marketing, but it's also discriminatory design).
I've been interested in design recently, having joined a 'Service Design' team at work and was recommended this book by a colleague. The book reflects some of our conversations as we discuss the ethics of what we do, what we 'change' and also how we interrelate to each other as a team and involve others.
I won't bore everyone with the content of our discussions, but about half way through this book I ended up telling my colleague that this book was laying bare some of the tensions I had been feeling recently.
The book aims to present the concepts of Design Justice (the principles can be read here and serve as a good primer https://designjustice.org/read-the-pr...). It also shares how the world around us is designed in a certain way that excludes, omits or commits microaggressions against marginalised people continually. It makes sense that if the world is run by those in power, that the design of everyday things, processes, technology and so on is designed by and for those people.
I could take the view that much of this is intentional. A 'feature' of an exploitative capitalist system, and it's true that there are plenty of products and services out there which intentionally harm others (anti-homeless architecture, 'nudge' theory government benefit systems, prisons etc.) What I am perhaps more interested in, are the norms, the underlying thinking that unintentionally causes harm because they either do not involve a wider group impacted by design, or they just don't think of it. Examples include, scanners at airports which assume a person is male or female based on their body shape conflicting with the world view and perspective of the security staff, video games where protagonists were almost exclusively male, telling girls and women, 'this isn't for you'. Soap dispensers in bathrooms that cannot sense black skin...these micro aggressions are everywhere.
It's weird, but whilst I have been reading this book I have been observing how design decisions (intentional and otherwise) exclude people. We have to ask ourselves about where we make trade-offs in utility. Years ago bars, clubs, restaurants, public buildings were often inaccessible for physically disabled people but now these places are often designed and built so everyone can enjoy them. That doesn't mean we get rid of stairs in homes as a design feature? More that we consider when building a home or any building, 'how will people not like me access this building'.
I really enjoyed the critique of some of the activities which go into design which mean to be inclusive but fail to be. For instance 'empathy mapping', and 'user personas'. I'm not suggesting these aren't worth doing because they are, but they still are problematic. I'm a white able bodied man. If I am helping design a service, I can empathise with how it feels for people who will access it who are not like me. I can imagine what it is like to wait forever, struggling with technology as an old man. I can imagine how hard a service is to access if English isn't my first language and it's good that I can consider this (seriously this would be a million times better than what many do), but the key point is, that I am not an elderly man, I am not a non-native English speaker so I am guessing, not truly understanding. The book refers to examples of able bodied people sitting in a wheelchair to navigate the design of something - they mean well, but they can only view the world in an able bodied way, they can't understand what a person who uses a wheelchair will experience or how they will adapt.
The theme draws heavily on black feminist intersectional theory, and it is a very US centric book which will need a little bit of adaptation to other cultures. As is wont with much American analysis class is mentioned but it seems given relatively short shrift. That isn't a negative per se as I think the key thinking is applicable but context seems to matter an awful lot. Some of the points feel repeated and laboured, and I guess the book runs out of steam towards the end and feels a little repetitive. Some of this can be condensed.
The author's labour in acknowledging the work of others is sterling, as are the many examples of both poor design and also attempts to do things differently, participating with others communally. There is a significant nod to anarchist activism and ways of organising non-hierarchically, and exploring ways of communal and consensual decision making and some of the challenges with this. Even in areas where the author feels something is a positive, there are appropriate critiques and reflections - I don't see this as a plea for perfection, more a recognition that we live in an imperfect world. She doesn't make the link explicitly, but I can see a strong focus on anarchist pre-configuration here, and how we need to design the world we want to live in.
I'm looking forward to having a long chat with my friend about this. It's certainly an interesting book, if not the most thrilling, feeling a little dry at times and once you start understanding the core theme of the book you'll see design decisions everywhere and think about them.
(A recent example, I tried to buy concert tickets a week ago and it was one of them with a number of presales tied to product ownership / membership which exclude people. By the time general sale came along all the remaining tickets were only available to people with a certain credit card. Now the ticket seller and credit card sees this partnership as mutually exclusive - from now on you'll get a credit card with us so you don't miss out again. That's shitty, but what's more shitty is hypothetically a person could have saved up, had a poor credit record, and be unable to get a credit card - even if they can afford the ticket, the lack of access to credit excludes people - about 20% in the UK. It may be capitalist marketing, but it's also discriminatory design).
February 27, 2023
# Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need
Design Justice is a book that explores the principles of community-led design and its potential to create a more just and equitable society. Sasha Costanza-Chock, a scholar and activist, has done a remarkable job of bringing this subject to the forefront of today's global culture. The book has been validated by a number of prominent scholars and activists, including Angela Davis and Tim Brown.
## Chapter Analysis
### Chapter 1: What is Design Justice?
Chapter 1 provides a clear definition of Design Justice and why it is needed. The author explains how design can perpetuate social inequalities, and how community-led design can help to address these issues. This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book and is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about Design Justice.
### Chapter 2: The Design Justice Network
Chapter 2 introduces a comprehensive overview of the Design Justice Network, a community of designers and activists who are working tirelessly to promote the principles of design justice. The Design Justice Network is a unique and groundbreaking organization that is dedicated to creating a more equitable and just society through the power of design. By promoting the principles of design justice, the network is able to tackle a wide range of issues and challenges in our society, including social inequality, injustice, and discrimination. Through a range of initiatives and projects, the Design Justice Network is able to empower communities, promote diversity and inclusivity, and foster a culture of innovation and creativity. The Design Justice Network is committed to educating and engaging individuals of all backgrounds in the power and importance of design justice, and inspiring them to take action to create a better world for all.
### Chapter 3: Community-Led Design Frameworks
Costanza-Chock presents a comprehensive and well-structured framework for community-led design, a collaborative approach in which community members are actively involved in the design process. This framework consists of several stages, including community mapping, visioning, co-design, and implementation.
Costanza-Chock also delves into various models of community-led design, such as the Participatory Action Research (PAR) model and the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model. Examining the strengths and limitations of each model and provides examples of successful community-led design projects.
By emphasizing the importance of community-led design, Costanza-Chock highlights the need for designers and researchers to move beyond traditional top-down approaches and to engage with diverse communities throughout the design process. This not only leads to more inclusive and innovative designs but also empowers communities and fosters social change.
### Chapter 4: Design Justice in Action
This chapter showcases various case studies of community-led design projects and their contribution to the betterment of communities. The studies provide a detailed analysis of the projects' conception, planning, execution, and impact. While delving into the unique characteristics of each project, including the challenges faced and how they were overcome. This selection refers to a report or presentation that discusses the different parties involved in a project, their individual contributions to the project's success, and the role they played. It highlights the importance of collaboration and teamwork in achieving project goals. Overall, the case studies aim to illustrate how community-led design projects can empower communities and lead to sustainable development.
### Chapter 5: Designing for the Margins
In this chapter, Costanza-Chock discusses the importance of designing for marginalized communities and explores different approaches to doing so. One important point made is about the need to truly listen to the communities being designed for - this means not just assuming what their needs are, but actually engaging with them in a meaningful way. Another approach discussed is the use of co-design, where the community members themselves are involved in the design process. This can lead to more relevant and effective design outcomes, as the people who will actually be using the product or service are intimately involved in its creation. Furthermore, the author highlights the importance of an intersectional approach to design, recognizing that marginalized communities are not homogenous and that their needs may differ based on factors such as race, gender, and class.
### Chapter 6: Design Justice and the Digital Age
The author delves into the intricate relationship between design justice and technology, and how the latter can be utilized to promote the former. By examining the current state of design and technology, the author highlights the potential for technology to be used in the service of design justice, while also acknowledging the challenges that such an approach may face. Through a careful analysis of the intersection between these two fields, the author provides a thought-provoking and nuanced perspective on the ways in which technology can be harnessed to promote design justice.
### Chapter 7: Towards a Just Design Future
The final chapter of the book is devoted to exploring the concept of design justice, which is the idea that the design of products, systems, and infrastructure can have a significant impact on equity and justice. This is an important concept to consider as we move towards creating a more just and equitable future. The author argues that we must take a critical approach to design, questioning the assumptions and biases that underlie many design decisions. By doing so, we can create products and systems that are more inclusive and fair, and that better serve the needs of all people, particularly those who have historically been marginalized or excluded. The author also suggests that there is a need for greater collaboration between designers and communities to ensure that design solutions are context-specific and responsive to the needs and values of the people they are intended to serve. Overall, the chapter provides a compelling argument for the importance of design justice, and offers a roadmap for how we can work towards a more just and equitable future through design.
This book provides a framework and case studies that inform and inspire community-led design projects. It contributes to the field of design and activism and is recommended reading for anyone interested in building a more just society. After reading, the reader will have a better understanding of the principles of design justice and its potential to create equity and justice.
Design Justice is a book that explores the principles of community-led design and its potential to create a more just and equitable society. Sasha Costanza-Chock, a scholar and activist, has done a remarkable job of bringing this subject to the forefront of today's global culture. The book has been validated by a number of prominent scholars and activists, including Angela Davis and Tim Brown.
## Chapter Analysis
### Chapter 1: What is Design Justice?
Chapter 1 provides a clear definition of Design Justice and why it is needed. The author explains how design can perpetuate social inequalities, and how community-led design can help to address these issues. This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book and is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about Design Justice.
### Chapter 2: The Design Justice Network
Chapter 2 introduces a comprehensive overview of the Design Justice Network, a community of designers and activists who are working tirelessly to promote the principles of design justice. The Design Justice Network is a unique and groundbreaking organization that is dedicated to creating a more equitable and just society through the power of design. By promoting the principles of design justice, the network is able to tackle a wide range of issues and challenges in our society, including social inequality, injustice, and discrimination. Through a range of initiatives and projects, the Design Justice Network is able to empower communities, promote diversity and inclusivity, and foster a culture of innovation and creativity. The Design Justice Network is committed to educating and engaging individuals of all backgrounds in the power and importance of design justice, and inspiring them to take action to create a better world for all.
### Chapter 3: Community-Led Design Frameworks
Costanza-Chock presents a comprehensive and well-structured framework for community-led design, a collaborative approach in which community members are actively involved in the design process. This framework consists of several stages, including community mapping, visioning, co-design, and implementation.
Costanza-Chock also delves into various models of community-led design, such as the Participatory Action Research (PAR) model and the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model. Examining the strengths and limitations of each model and provides examples of successful community-led design projects.
By emphasizing the importance of community-led design, Costanza-Chock highlights the need for designers and researchers to move beyond traditional top-down approaches and to engage with diverse communities throughout the design process. This not only leads to more inclusive and innovative designs but also empowers communities and fosters social change.
### Chapter 4: Design Justice in Action
This chapter showcases various case studies of community-led design projects and their contribution to the betterment of communities. The studies provide a detailed analysis of the projects' conception, planning, execution, and impact. While delving into the unique characteristics of each project, including the challenges faced and how they were overcome. This selection refers to a report or presentation that discusses the different parties involved in a project, their individual contributions to the project's success, and the role they played. It highlights the importance of collaboration and teamwork in achieving project goals. Overall, the case studies aim to illustrate how community-led design projects can empower communities and lead to sustainable development.
### Chapter 5: Designing for the Margins
In this chapter, Costanza-Chock discusses the importance of designing for marginalized communities and explores different approaches to doing so. One important point made is about the need to truly listen to the communities being designed for - this means not just assuming what their needs are, but actually engaging with them in a meaningful way. Another approach discussed is the use of co-design, where the community members themselves are involved in the design process. This can lead to more relevant and effective design outcomes, as the people who will actually be using the product or service are intimately involved in its creation. Furthermore, the author highlights the importance of an intersectional approach to design, recognizing that marginalized communities are not homogenous and that their needs may differ based on factors such as race, gender, and class.
### Chapter 6: Design Justice and the Digital Age
The author delves into the intricate relationship between design justice and technology, and how the latter can be utilized to promote the former. By examining the current state of design and technology, the author highlights the potential for technology to be used in the service of design justice, while also acknowledging the challenges that such an approach may face. Through a careful analysis of the intersection between these two fields, the author provides a thought-provoking and nuanced perspective on the ways in which technology can be harnessed to promote design justice.
### Chapter 7: Towards a Just Design Future
The final chapter of the book is devoted to exploring the concept of design justice, which is the idea that the design of products, systems, and infrastructure can have a significant impact on equity and justice. This is an important concept to consider as we move towards creating a more just and equitable future. The author argues that we must take a critical approach to design, questioning the assumptions and biases that underlie many design decisions. By doing so, we can create products and systems that are more inclusive and fair, and that better serve the needs of all people, particularly those who have historically been marginalized or excluded. The author also suggests that there is a need for greater collaboration between designers and communities to ensure that design solutions are context-specific and responsive to the needs and values of the people they are intended to serve. Overall, the chapter provides a compelling argument for the importance of design justice, and offers a roadmap for how we can work towards a more just and equitable future through design.
This book provides a framework and case studies that inform and inspire community-led design projects. It contributes to the field of design and activism and is recommended reading for anyone interested in building a more just society. After reading, the reader will have a better understanding of the principles of design justice and its potential to create equity and justice.
December 26, 2020
As a whole, this is a great overview of design justice and where it is today. It is well articulated with numerous examples, and there are so many sources of further information mentioned for those interested in pathways for further learning about design justice.
The strength in the book's numerous examples and sources can also be a potential downfall for some readers. It can get a little dense, or perhaps overwhelming, when so many names of individuals, groups, or initiatives are strung together.
The strength in the book's numerous examples and sources can also be a potential downfall for some readers. It can get a little dense, or perhaps overwhelming, when so many names of individuals, groups, or initiatives are strung together.
May 9, 2022
A critical book about design that begins by analyzing the way that TSA's body scanners impact trans & gender non-conforming people? Sign me up. The rest of the book however is a little bit more tedious to get through. I wish that some sections went more in-depth with their examples and that there was an overall better organization of the chapters (more/clearer divisions). The content is really thought-provoking and worth engaging with.
August 9, 2020
Very academic and dense--I'd say it is definitely aimed at a graduate level audience. There are a lot of ideas here and it takes a while to see where they were going with it but I was able to get through it and appreciate the connections they were able to make between different theoretical constructs, activism, and design practice.
February 3, 2022
Not my style. A lot of assertions, not a lot of data to support it and a bit redundant. I agree with it's main arguments, but did not enjoy the read.
December 26, 2023
Great informational book on design justice principles. I think the author makes pretty clear that the book is not a how-to, which I agree with. Instead, the book contains many rich examples and case studies of designs and processes that illustrate certain facets of design justice principles. Designers who read this may use it as a reference for ideas about toolkits for creating equitable design systems. Some ideas were pretty repetitive, but I think it might just be for me coming from a disability justice lens. Coming from a disability studies lens, I already felt familiar with many of the principles described in this book, but there were also some nuggets of motivating reaffirmations.
The author makes clear on why they approach their ideas from Black Feminist theory stance, and I think discussions of designs from intersectionality and matrix of domination are great ways of analyzing power dynamics in designs. I have no problem with this; however - although there are many references of disability and accessibility - with direct opposition of lauding productivity in a system of late-stage capitalism, I would have liked to have seen more inclusion of Disability Justice theory that more directly calls out anti-capitalist politics in its principles, and other critical disability theories in the book as well. Love that Sins Invalid is mentioned, but also, how were design justice principles influenced from Disability Justice Principles? Especially given that social movement is a big section in the book, I wish I could have seen more mentions of disability justice activism and principles applied. Alison Kafer and Leah Lakshmi-Piepzna Samarasinha are mentioned in somewhat passing, but I also wish their works were given more space and explored in the book. Especially Leah's, given that arguably it's more accessible than texts that present itself to be more academic, such as this book (which, does beg the question of who has access to this book, who can understand its concepts in this medium). Overall though, I do appreciate that the book does a great job of weaving various disciplines and theories.
I also find that many elements of speculative design and "dreaming" are mentioned (along with tension between pragmatism and utopia), but I wish speculative design and design fiction could have been explored more. Perhaps speculative design isn't mentioned due to its Euro-centric and privileged roots, but I think there are a lot of great work currently being done with speculative design to address its problems. I also think dreaming or speculative futures as a practice can have practical and pragmatic outcomes, as shown by work of many disability justice activists and care networks out there.
Overall, it's a good introductory book to design justice. Will be referencing it as an encyclopedia later on as I work on my own design projects and will recommend to designers who are new to this line of critical design thinking.
The author makes clear on why they approach their ideas from Black Feminist theory stance, and I think discussions of designs from intersectionality and matrix of domination are great ways of analyzing power dynamics in designs. I have no problem with this; however - although there are many references of disability and accessibility - with direct opposition of lauding productivity in a system of late-stage capitalism, I would have liked to have seen more inclusion of Disability Justice theory that more directly calls out anti-capitalist politics in its principles, and other critical disability theories in the book as well. Love that Sins Invalid is mentioned, but also, how were design justice principles influenced from Disability Justice Principles? Especially given that social movement is a big section in the book, I wish I could have seen more mentions of disability justice activism and principles applied. Alison Kafer and Leah Lakshmi-Piepzna Samarasinha are mentioned in somewhat passing, but I also wish their works were given more space and explored in the book. Especially Leah's, given that arguably it's more accessible than texts that present itself to be more academic, such as this book (which, does beg the question of who has access to this book, who can understand its concepts in this medium). Overall though, I do appreciate that the book does a great job of weaving various disciplines and theories.
I also find that many elements of speculative design and "dreaming" are mentioned (along with tension between pragmatism and utopia), but I wish speculative design and design fiction could have been explored more. Perhaps speculative design isn't mentioned due to its Euro-centric and privileged roots, but I think there are a lot of great work currently being done with speculative design to address its problems. I also think dreaming or speculative futures as a practice can have practical and pragmatic outcomes, as shown by work of many disability justice activists and care networks out there.
Overall, it's a good introductory book to design justice. Will be referencing it as an encyclopedia later on as I work on my own design projects and will recommend to designers who are new to this line of critical design thinking.
April 30, 2021
This book is by a trans femme MIT professor. It situates design within Crenshaw’s matrix of domination (power is unfairly determined by race, gender, and class) and provides thorough critiques of existing practices. The author also provides concrete examples from her MIT class of how to use a design justice approach instead.
Some of the main my main takeaways were: 1) the unmarked user tends to be a white, middle class, straight cis man without disabilities, even when the designer does not fall into that description, 2) not explicitly marking users based on their position in the matrix of domination, which most design books don’t do, excludes many from being considered in the designs OR can result in extractive practices that appropriate ideas from less-advantaged individuals.
In one of my design research classes at Stanford, a lecturer described turning an idea a participant brought up during an interview into a million dollar idea. The participant only received a small stipend, which tend to be a few more dollars than the local minimum wage, for the interview. He, an older white man, explained that this was fair because the participant had signed an agreement stating that all ideas brought up during the interview belonged to the interviewing party. After reading this book, and seeing the contrast in the design justice approach it advocates for, I'm extra aware of the importance of teaching students to avoid extractive practices that may strengthen the "white supremacist heteropatriarchal capitalist settler colonial system."
I consider the design justice approach's main difference from the traditional design-oriented education is the strong emphasis placed on giving our users or participants, especially those from underserved communities, a role in the design team as a designer and adequate credit and compensation.
Some of the main my main takeaways were: 1) the unmarked user tends to be a white, middle class, straight cis man without disabilities, even when the designer does not fall into that description, 2) not explicitly marking users based on their position in the matrix of domination, which most design books don’t do, excludes many from being considered in the designs OR can result in extractive practices that appropriate ideas from less-advantaged individuals.
In one of my design research classes at Stanford, a lecturer described turning an idea a participant brought up during an interview into a million dollar idea. The participant only received a small stipend, which tend to be a few more dollars than the local minimum wage, for the interview. He, an older white man, explained that this was fair because the participant had signed an agreement stating that all ideas brought up during the interview belonged to the interviewing party. After reading this book, and seeing the contrast in the design justice approach it advocates for, I'm extra aware of the importance of teaching students to avoid extractive practices that may strengthen the "white supremacist heteropatriarchal capitalist settler colonial system."
I consider the design justice approach's main difference from the traditional design-oriented education is the strong emphasis placed on giving our users or participants, especially those from underserved communities, a role in the design team as a designer and adequate credit and compensation.
March 20, 2023
Reading this book helped me understand some unconscious biases in designs I've been part of during my career in the software industry, as well as biases in products encountered during my lifetime. Seeing how hackerspaces which "are valorized as ideal-type location for design practices" yet have become dominated by "start-up culture and a neoliberal discourse of individual technical mastery and entrepreneurial citizenship" is disheartening. The discussion of innovation challenges that prioritize new tech solutions which are impractical and ignore existing low tech solutions was also interesting.
The problem with the book is the density of the writing. Attributions and quotes are widespread. Long complex sentences make the reading a slog.
"In their 2016 book Grassroots Innovation Movements, STS scholars Adrian Smith, Mariano Fressoli, Dinesh Abrol, Elisa Arond, and Adrian Ely note that the concept of framing is used differently in social movement studies and in the sociology of technology. For social movement scholars Robert Benford and David Snow, collective action frames are 'sets of beliefs and meanings that inspire and legitimate the activities and campaigns of a social movement organization.' The creation and circulation of new frames is an important social movement activity, since frames enable and constrain action and shape the emergence of social movement identities. In science and technology studies, however, 'technological frames consist of the shared problems, strategies, requirements, theories, knowledge, design criteria, exemplary artifacts, testing procedures and user practices that emerge through social interaction in groups. They help us to understand what social actors deem to be reasonable in choosing and developing a technology.' How, then, do social frames depoliticize design processes?"
200 pages of that is not enjoyable.
The problem with the book is the density of the writing. Attributions and quotes are widespread. Long complex sentences make the reading a slog.
"In their 2016 book Grassroots Innovation Movements, STS scholars Adrian Smith, Mariano Fressoli, Dinesh Abrol, Elisa Arond, and Adrian Ely note that the concept of framing is used differently in social movement studies and in the sociology of technology. For social movement scholars Robert Benford and David Snow, collective action frames are 'sets of beliefs and meanings that inspire and legitimate the activities and campaigns of a social movement organization.' The creation and circulation of new frames is an important social movement activity, since frames enable and constrain action and shape the emergence of social movement identities. In science and technology studies, however, 'technological frames consist of the shared problems, strategies, requirements, theories, knowledge, design criteria, exemplary artifacts, testing procedures and user practices that emerge through social interaction in groups. They help us to understand what social actors deem to be reasonable in choosing and developing a technology.' How, then, do social frames depoliticize design processes?"
200 pages of that is not enjoyable.
October 19, 2020
Excerpts:
p. 53 "UD (universal design) discourse emphasizes that we should try to design for everybody and that by including those who are often excluded from design considerations, we can make objects, places, and systems that ultimately function better for all (italics) people. Disability justice shares that goal, but also acknowledges both that some people are always advantaged and other disadvantaged by any given design, and that this distribution is influenced by intersecting structures of race, class, gender, and disability. Instead of masking this reality, design justice practitioners seek to make it explicit: we prioritize design work that shifts advantages to those who are currently systematically disadvantaged within the matrix of domination."
p. 68 "Regardless of the design domain, design justice explicitly urges designers to adopt social justice values, to work against the unequal distribution of design's benefits and burdens, and to attempt to understand and counter white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, and settler colonialism, or what Black feminist thought terms the matrix of domination (italics). Design justice is interested in how to hard-code the liberatory values of intersectional feminism at every level of designed objects and systems, including the interface, the database, the algorithm, and sociotechnical practices 'in the wild.'"
p. 53 "UD (universal design) discourse emphasizes that we should try to design for everybody and that by including those who are often excluded from design considerations, we can make objects, places, and systems that ultimately function better for all (italics) people. Disability justice shares that goal, but also acknowledges both that some people are always advantaged and other disadvantaged by any given design, and that this distribution is influenced by intersecting structures of race, class, gender, and disability. Instead of masking this reality, design justice practitioners seek to make it explicit: we prioritize design work that shifts advantages to those who are currently systematically disadvantaged within the matrix of domination."
p. 68 "Regardless of the design domain, design justice explicitly urges designers to adopt social justice values, to work against the unequal distribution of design's benefits and burdens, and to attempt to understand and counter white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, and settler colonialism, or what Black feminist thought terms the matrix of domination (italics). Design justice is interested in how to hard-code the liberatory values of intersectional feminism at every level of designed objects and systems, including the interface, the database, the algorithm, and sociotechnical practices 'in the wild.'"
March 17, 2023
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone working in tech. As a product designer, I really liked this book because I can actually use insights from this book in my design process to critically think and implement no matter which project I am working on.
One particular idea that stood out was co-designing and not using community members in user research or other phases of the design process as means of extraction to drive data-based decisions rather treating users as experts of their own lived experience. Giving credit where it's due and having a written formal agreement while working with community members are some aspects I will personally use. Even led me to rethink the entire "competitive analysis" aspect of the design process where you're basically trying to make yourself stand out by finding drawbacks of other apps/ solutions. Sasha urges us to instead take a collaborative rather than competitive approach.
The book emphasizes the current tech culture of the one product being the savior/ solution when in fact impacted communities always have their own way of dealing with problems. Working with marginalized/ oppressed groups and excluding their narrative is something that happens A LOT.
Although, I did find some writing to be repetitive (heteropatriarchal, settler colonialism). I get the meaning behind mentioning it repeatedly but it got in the way of reading for me personally.
Overall, great read! Definitely recommend :)
One particular idea that stood out was co-designing and not using community members in user research or other phases of the design process as means of extraction to drive data-based decisions rather treating users as experts of their own lived experience. Giving credit where it's due and having a written formal agreement while working with community members are some aspects I will personally use. Even led me to rethink the entire "competitive analysis" aspect of the design process where you're basically trying to make yourself stand out by finding drawbacks of other apps/ solutions. Sasha urges us to instead take a collaborative rather than competitive approach.
The book emphasizes the current tech culture of the one product being the savior/ solution when in fact impacted communities always have their own way of dealing with problems. Working with marginalized/ oppressed groups and excluding their narrative is something that happens A LOT.
Although, I did find some writing to be repetitive (heteropatriarchal, settler colonialism). I get the meaning behind mentioning it repeatedly but it got in the way of reading for me personally.
Overall, great read! Definitely recommend :)
November 13, 2025
This was great! I was reading this for a book review assignment and initially wasn’t sure if I’d love the book. Not that the topic didn’t interest me, but I was intimidated by the topic and feared that it would be too dense of a read. This book is quite the opposite actually. It mixes otherwise dense concepts using well-illustrated and thoughtful examples, peppered in with analogies and considerations of what design justice could possibly look like. I listened to this as an audio book and found it really easy to follow along, part of that is because the book is repetitive in nature. Initially I found that to be a bit bothersome however I realized it only solidified my understanding / memory of the book more
A couple of points that stood out to me (I apologize as some of these are direct quotes while others are paraphrased)
- Innovation often happens on margins of society
- Broader powers don’t just magically disapppear within design teams just because everyone is committed to design justice principles. Gender, race, class, disability and structural inequality are always active in educational environments
- Privilege and power never go away!! But design justice studio can be the place where it is recognized, acknowledged and discussed
- a core challenge of design justice is wanting to destabilitze othering, but that doesn’t mean we want to erase differences
I would recommend this book to someone considering UX and design!
A couple of points that stood out to me (I apologize as some of these are direct quotes while others are paraphrased)
- Innovation often happens on margins of society
- Broader powers don’t just magically disapppear within design teams just because everyone is committed to design justice principles. Gender, race, class, disability and structural inequality are always active in educational environments
- Privilege and power never go away!! But design justice studio can be the place where it is recognized, acknowledged and discussed
- a core challenge of design justice is wanting to destabilitze othering, but that doesn’t mean we want to erase differences
I would recommend this book to someone considering UX and design!
May 20, 2021
I took way too long to read this! To be fair, I was kind of living out its principles throughout the back half of my degree, most notably in my UX design mastery course. (Shout out to Dr. Lindtner for not only including Costanza-Chock's readings in her course but for structuring the entire course around design justice and inclusive design techniques.) So even though it took me almost a year to get through Design Justice, I prefer it that way. The material sank in better and I was able to think deeply about these techniques when applying them myself. Which was pretty difficult during covid.
Throughout my degree I've had this simmering (and naive-feeling) anxiety that most, if not all, jobs I will find under late-stage capitalism will be morally compromising and will in some way contribute to the further harm of already marginalized people and the destruction of earth. (I'm looking for a therapist.) Costanza-Chock obviously does not assuage my fears on all of those matters, but at least makes me feel better about the fact that many of the tools for change are right in front of us, and that patience and understanding are some of our most important assets.
Throughout my degree I've had this simmering (and naive-feeling) anxiety that most, if not all, jobs I will find under late-stage capitalism will be morally compromising and will in some way contribute to the further harm of already marginalized people and the destruction of earth. (I'm looking for a therapist.) Costanza-Chock obviously does not assuage my fears on all of those matters, but at least makes me feel better about the fact that many of the tools for change are right in front of us, and that patience and understanding are some of our most important assets.
August 21, 2021
More like 3.5 stars.
Decent book but felt very general and intro level, I was hoping for something a bit more. Still, that's just my preference - the book was well written and designed, and covered a large scope of information within the topic. I think this would be particularly good for anyone in any kind of design field who isn't already aware of design bias.
One big nitpick I had with the book was the overuse of acronyms. In my previous jobs creating trainings and communications within an industry that is flooded with acronyms (finance), I learned to try to write without them to keep things clear for newcomers and those of us with bad memories. At one point the author abbreviated 'prison industrial complex' as PIC and I almost threw my laptop across the room in rage. Nearly every page was littered with acronyms and I constantly lost track of what was being talked about. In a book about accessibility, this seems a weird oversight.
Overall, would recommend if you are not sent into a seething rage at unnecessary acronyms and if you are newish to the topic and want a nice general overview and/or are in any kind of design field.
Decent book but felt very general and intro level, I was hoping for something a bit more. Still, that's just my preference - the book was well written and designed, and covered a large scope of information within the topic. I think this would be particularly good for anyone in any kind of design field who isn't already aware of design bias.
One big nitpick I had with the book was the overuse of acronyms. In my previous jobs creating trainings and communications within an industry that is flooded with acronyms (finance), I learned to try to write without them to keep things clear for newcomers and those of us with bad memories. At one point the author abbreviated 'prison industrial complex' as PIC and I almost threw my laptop across the room in rage. Nearly every page was littered with acronyms and I constantly lost track of what was being talked about. In a book about accessibility, this seems a weird oversight.
Overall, would recommend if you are not sent into a seething rage at unnecessary acronyms and if you are newish to the topic and want a nice general overview and/or are in any kind of design field.
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