I want to change the way we design products, services and experiences by ensuring that the unique experiences and voices of women are always considered in the design process. In everything I design, I always return to this fundamental value, which has been summed up perfectly by Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble: “It’s never been approached from a female perspective.” In our society, there are so many domains and businesses, especially in technology, that have only ever been thought about from the male perspective, and my goal is to make history by designing for herstory.

 One of the first projects I worked on where I realized the detrimental impact not including female voices can have on a community was in a class about designing for social impact in sexual education. After surveying and talking to hundreds of students, I discovered that there was a huge lack of information and guidance about birth control on campus. Countless students told me about how the lack of transparency surrounding birth control just caused them to give up and not use a contraceptive all together. After reflecting on this project, it became clear to me that sexual education on campus had a clear male bias and that the insights I found could only be derived from the female perspective. I remember feeling frustrated at the lack of resources allocated to this overwhelming need for about half of the student body, especially since there was such a simple solution. But this frustration quickly turned into a call for action, and by the end of the class I had created a mock-up for a website to increase birth control accessibility, which I am still actively working on implementing today.

This wasn’t the only project I’ve been a part of where I’ve worked to approach an issue from the lens of a female. As one of the founding members of Topt, a female founded food startup, I talked to countless women in all different stages of life about their unique eating habits and dietary struggles. Over the course of 10 weeks, we did over 100 in person user interviews, always keeping in mind the challenges of motherhood, 60-hour work weeks and unattainable body standards. As an active member of Stanford Women in Design, I’ve facilitated design related discussions that have empowered female students and helped organize speaker events with women leaders in design to highlight the importance of creating space for the voices of women.  

As you’ll see in my design challenge, whether or not I’m designing a product or feature specifically for women, I always view the problem and architect the solution with a feminine mindset. Regardless of what I’m designing, I want to impact the world by tackling the lack of female representation not only in the design process, but also in the workforce. I hope to take a position of leadership in whatever organization I join to not only promote the narrative of female forward design, but also empower other women to do the same.

I chose Airbnb for my design challenge because I’ve always deeply aligned with their mission to bring people together anywhere in the world. As an avid user of Airbnb, myself, I was also very excited to speak with and learn what other users like and don’t like about the product. My redesign ended up taking an unexpected turn, but everything was derived from initial conversations I had with users.

Omar

“When I was traveling in Europe, I always stayed in hostels because it was an easy way to meet and hang out with other travelers. You just don’t get that with an Airbnb.”

From the Airbnb landing page, there is an option to select mates

Clicking on a group will bring up brief summaries about each person in the group.

From the groups perspective, the request will appear in their group chat with an option to accept or decline the individual. You would also be able to click on the individuals profile.