I've just read this fantastic post on the importance of considering diversity in product design and wanted to share it here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-bias-product-design-means-life-death-carol-reiley
I won't copy everything over, but here are just a couple of the points made that I found particularly concerning:
"In the 1960s, the vehicular test crash protocol called for testing with dummies modeled after the average male with its height, weight, and stature falling in the 50th percentile. This meant seatbelts were designed to be safe for men and, for years, we sold cars that were largely unsafe for women, especially pregnant women. Consequently, female drivers are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car crash."
"Microsoft’s vision system was reported to fail to recognize darker skinned people. Today, one of the most prominent applications of computer vision is self-driving cars, which rely on these systems to recognize and make sense of the world around them. If these systems don’t recognize people of every race as human, there will be serious safety implications."
"White men viewing a crowd with 17% women perceived it to be 50–50, and when it was 33% women, they perceived it to be majority women. A simple overestimation like this illustrates how difficult it can be to see the world from another’s perspective."
