What about us?: Marginalization, Privilege, Power, and Inclusion Today.

I will be speaking to you about the role that privilege plays in our work in the field of UX, its effects on the products, and of course the people who end up using these products. We will also be touching on the idea of decolonizing design especially from the lens of post-colonial Southeast Asia and how we can create better products by reframing our understanding of empathy with an understanding of privilege and marginalization.

As the world of tech now shifts its focus on Asia it’s important that these heavy topics around ethics and inclusion be talked about especially in the diverse landscape. As the world continues to look at the emerging markets of Southeast Asia it’s imperative that we not forget about designing even for the most marginalized communities in our region so we can create a more inclusive and progressive tech and design culture.

The goal for this session is for attendees to understand the role of privilege and how an understanding of privilege and marginalization can help us design more ethical and inclusive products and teams across gender, race, religion, culture, and economic strata. This will also help attendees understand the issues and problems of the UX industry today that they'll encounter in their careers, especially from a Southeast Asian perspective.