Just a few days ago, we at Team CoDesign, were looking to hire a full-time UI/UX designer to join us in our adventurous ride of the web design world. We did receive a lot many applications, however, around 85% of the applications came from males. This made us think whether there exists a gender disparity in the world of design? Our research told us that the field of UX design is composed of just 30% of female designers.
Though this is a lot better than the other tech fields, however, we still believe that the world of design can do better with more women power. Hence, we decided to celebrate World Design Day 2019 by sharing a list of women who are rocking the UX world and serving as an inspiration to all other young women designers around the world:
Elizabeth Churchill
The Director of User Experience at Google, Elizabeth is an applied social scientist specializing in the field of social computing and human computer interactions (HCI). She was born in Calcutta, India. During her early childhood, she moved to Newcastle. In the past, she has worked with companies like Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Yahoo! And eBay.
In 2006, she joined Yahoo! as their principal research scientist. She has even served as the Director of Human Computer Interaction at eBay Research Labs. She is one of our favourites from the list as she is also a staunch advocate of gender equality and has also authored a book titled ‘Feminism and HCI: New Perspectives”.
Dana Chisnell
“Want your users to fall in love with your designs? Fall in love with your users.” This quote by Dana Chisnell gives us a clear idea of how amazing a designer she is. Dana is a pioneer in civic design having worked for ex-President of United States Barack Obama at the U.S. Digital Service (2014–16). Thereafter, she co-founded the Center for Civic Design with another leading designer named Whitney Quesenbery.
Her work focuses mainly on ensuring that the interaction between the people and their government is pleasant, effective and efficient. In 2008, along with Jeff Rubin, she has also authored a book titled ‘Handbook of Usability Testing’. In the world of UX Design, Dana is a mighty influencer. She is influencing hundreds of designers by helping them identify the difference between good design and bad design and by making them gain knowledge about the kind of experience users want.
Julie Zhou
One of Silicon Valley’s top design executives, Julie Zhou’s journey from an engineering internship student to VP of Product Design at the most popular social engine Facebook is a captivating one indeed. Julie joined the Facebook team in 2006 and within these 13 years, she has helped the company grow from 8 million users to over 1 billion.
She heads the design team at Facebook and all that you see on your Facebook app, right from the News Feed to content discovery is her creation. She is an avid reader and has recently published her own book titled ‘The Making of a Manager’.
Irene Au
If you are reading this article, you have been impacted by Irene Au’s work. Every man on this planet who has used the Internet is a witness of her fascinating achievement. She is literally the face behind browsers. Irene designed the world’s first commercial web browser after she began her career as an interaction designer with Netscape Communications.
Her achievements in the field of interaction design are remarkable. She has built and led design teams at top-notch companies like Yahoo!, Google and Udacity. Currently, she serves as the design partner at Khosla Ventures and helps portfolio companies get their design game on point. She is an incredible mentor, designers across the world can look up to. Apart from her astounding achievements in the field of design, Irene is also a Yoga and meditation enthusiast.
Lizzie Dyson
Lizzie Dyson graduated with a degree in web design in 2012 and within a short span of time she has carved her own niche in this industry. However, it did not take much time for Lizzie to realize the scarcity of women designers in the predominantly male-dominated design world.
Hence, in 2013, along with another female UX designer she organised a local meet-up called ‘Ladies that UX’. The main motto of this group was to promote female skill and talent in the world of design. It provided a collaborative platform for like-minded females who discussed ideas, shared experiences and inspired other females to join the UX world. Lizzie’s small initiative has gone a long way in improving the female participation in the design sector. She is currently working with Rentalcars and also has gained extensive experience while working with BBC.
Lastly, the list of awe-inspiring women designers is definitely a long one and we hope it keeps getting longer and longer with more women joining the world of design in the upcoming years.
