Introduction In an age of virtual connectivity and increased reliance on the internet for daily functions, including by marginalized groups,1 can companies and technologists reframe their features or standards to support the most marginalized2 users’ needs? Can the modes of resilience within digital spaces from some of the most marginalized groups be listened to, learned from, and centered when creating technology? Design From the Margins (DFM), a design process that centers the most impacted and marginalized users from ideation to production, pushes the notion that not only is this something that can and must be done, but also that it is highly beneficial for all users and companies. For this to happen, consumer interest conversations need to be framed outside the “biggest use case” scenarios and United States and European Union-centrisms and refocused on the cases often left in the margins: the decentered cases. This report outlines how the DFM method can be used to build our most well-known and relied-upon technologies for decentered cases (often deemed “edge cases”3 which is atypical or less common use case for a product) from the beginning of the design process, rather than retrofitting them post-deployment to cater to communities with what are perceived to be extra needs.
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Due to communication needs outside or within the barriers place via things such as oppressive and discriminatory laws historical structures, social stigma and pandemics.
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Marginalization is “[a] social process by which individuals or groups are (intentionally or unintentionally) distanced from access to power and resources and constructed as insignificant, peripheral, or less valuable/privileged to a community or “mainstream” society. This term describes a social process, so as not to imply a lack of agency. Marginalized groups or people are those excluded from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life. Examples of marginalized groups include, but are by no means limited to, groups excluded due to race, religion, political or cultural group, age, gender, or financial status. To what extent such populations are marginalized, however, is context specific and reliant on the cultural organization of the social site in question.” Racialequitytools.org. 2021. Racial Equity Tools Glossary. [online] Available at: <https://www. racialequitytools.org/glossary> [Accessed 27 April 2022].
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More on the definition below in Decentered Cases: A Decentered Design also see: Say Yeah!. 2022. Glossary Archive — Say Yeah!. [online] Available at: <https://sayyeah.com/glossary/#edge-case> [Accessed 6 April 2022].
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs | Harvard Kennedy School
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