"...This inequity in the field directly affects which products come to market. Caroline Criado Perez’s research documents all the ways that design privileges men in both physical and digital spaces. It’s the reason why car crashes were more deadly for women until recently. It’s the reason that ill-fitting personal protective equipment—from masks to work vests—put the lives of women and people of color at risk. It’s the reason why digital harm is on the rise as social platforms are often not safe for women and people of color. These glaring oversights occur because the teams of designers, engineers, and coders are often homogenous in life, class, and ethnic backgrounds, led more often than not by white leaders, and they end up designing for what they know: people like themselves. Design can be life or death. And tools like HMW exacerbate how design reflects the needs of those who are in positions of power." (Fast Company, 28 June 21)