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LGBTQ+ Inclusive User Accounts

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<aside> đŸ„… Goal:

  1. Understand who can be affected by exclusionary design and how it happens.

  2. Learn how to design while keeping LGBTQ+ users in mind.

</aside>

Let's consider the narrative of one of our researchers who we will refer to as BF, who experienced the exclusionary effect that user account creation can result in for Queer populations:

BF is a non-binary graduate student at UC Berkeley who uses She/They pronouns. BF was interested in joining the intramural soccer team on campus during Spring 2022, and during the process had to create a user account on the IMLeagues website. Upon creating their account, they were instructed to categorize themselves between “non-binary”, “man”, and “woman”. BF was grateful that she had the option to choose what felt most true to themself, when they were able to choose “non-binary,” however, this feeling of autonomy and inclusion was quickly stripped when they were forced to choose between playing in the “woman’s league” or the “men’s league” BF spoke of the situation stating,

“As quickly as I felt included, I suddenly felt like I once again had to be disingenuous to my truest self”

Within the span of five seconds, the amount of time that it takes one to fill out and navigate a user account with minimal friction, was the same amount if time in which BF no longer felt accepted or welcome in playing in the Intramural leagues, deterring them from joining altogether. While it is possible that IMLeagues was separating gender to control for the competitive side of sports, how might using more inclusive language improved the overall experience of this user in this situation?

An image of User B.F’s pain and pleasure points with the story to the left. A quote that says “As quickly as I felt included, I suddenly felt like I once again had to be disingenuous to my truest self.”

An image of User B.F’s pain and pleasure points with the story to the left. A quote that says “As quickly as I felt included, I suddenly felt like I once again had to be disingenuous to my truest self.”

Examining the Issue

The issue in this design was that this user account presented two options: men or women's league, forcing BF to be untrue to themselves as a non-binary individual.

In our data, users noted feelings of othering stating,

“being boxed into one place feels hard for me sometimes”

while another one noted,

“They truly only gave two options–no ‘other’ or ‘refuse to answer’, you had to pick one.”

Examining the Design Flaw

Explore these drop downs to see more detailed descriptions and images of what went wrong with BF’s experience.

Creating the Account

Gender Identity

Exclusionary Language