Thread by @liatrisbian, Here are a few easy things you can do to make your [...]

Here are a few easy things you can do to make your next product a bit more inclusive for trans and non-binary people. (thread)

If users have to save their name, gender, SSN, e-mail address, pronouns (or any other info related to gender/name), then make sure they can *easily* change this information themselves later on.

The change should overwrite the original choice, and be updated everywhere.

Sometimes it’s impossible to change names after registration. Meaning that after someone comes out, they’ll have to either deal with being misgendered by your product, or create a new account.

Making this changeable will also benefit cis users who change name, for example.

Don’t ask your user their pronouns, title or gender unless absolutely necessary. Often that information is only collected for advertising purposes anyway. You can use neutral pronouns by default for everyone (eg Instagram always uses “they” for people in notifications)

Gender, pronouns and title are not interchangeable. Gender, legal gender and gender assigned at birth are not interchangeable either.

Ask for what you actually need. This will minimize the risk of mistakes.

(examples in the next tweet)

If you need a user’s passport information, you might need to know the gender on their passport (doesn’t always match the user’s actual gender, or their pronouns).

If you need to know how to refer to your users when sending out notifications to others (eg “It’s Sarah’s birthday today, send them a message!”), you want to know the user’s pronouns.

Assuming gender, pronouns and professional titles are a 1:1 mapping can lead to harm beyond the trans community as well.

Example: PhD/Dr could accidentally be mapped to male, causing cis women with PhDs to be classified as men.

Offer more options than just male/female (and he/her, etc). Non-binary people should be able to fill in your forms honestly.

We’re also not “would rather not say” or “custom”. A free-text field is a good alternative to radio-buttons or drop downs.

There’s more to gender than man, woman and non-binary as well (eg Two-Spirit seems to be often overlooked), free-text forms aren’t setting a “male/female” default.

This also avoids the following mistake (which is often done with the good intention to include trans people, but only excludes them more)

Woman

Man

Trans woman

Trans man

Other

Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Making that divide is harmful.

Representation matters. Use trans and non-binary people in your examples, product pictures and stock photos. Same also extends to BIPOC, disabled people, and other minoritized groups.

When categorizing and filtering things (eg items in a web shop), not everything has to be either male or female. Considering filtering by function, rather than by gender.

Example: some men and non-binary might need bras. By having a “lingerie” or “underwear” category outside of the male/female binary (rather than “female clothing > lingerie”) you’re making the experience more inclusive. And cis women who need bras will still know where to look.

Don’t group trans men and non-binary people with women by default. We’re not WomanLite.

It’s often done with good intentions to create safe spaces for people who are not cis men, but also risks creating a space where we’re not seen for who we are.

The same also goes for race. “Queer people and POC” is a phrase often used, again often with the intention to highlight diversity and inclusivity, but also make it sound as if there are no queer POC, making the phrase less inclusive.

Do your research. Read articles. Read books. Consult experts and PAY THEM for their work. Include trans people in your user interviews/tests. Challenge your own biases.

There’s a lot more to this, and this thread didn’t even cover issues like harassment or facial recognition yet.

I’m planning on writing a lot more about the subject on my blog after I’m back from my hiking trip. In the meantime, here are some resources

https://alistapart.com/article/trans-inclusive-design/

https://uxdesign.cc/designing-forms-for-gender-diversity-and-inclusion-d8194cf1f51

https://uxdesign.cc/beyond-the-binary-5-steps-to-designing-gender-inclusive-fields-in-your-product-ff9230337b4f

https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/diverse-stock-photos/

http://pronoun.is

https://www.selfdefined.app/definitions/non-binary/

https://www.selfdefined.app/definitions/transgender/

https://www.notion.so/liatrisbian/Reading-List-698071138be04d519527463b8d9bb7b7
(note: I’ll be moving the reading list away from Notion next week when I’m home)

(Also to re-iterate my last point - there’s a lot more to trans-inclusive products than just the points I mentioned. And there’s a lot more to inclusive design than just trans/gender issues.)

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