The gender perspective in cultural probes

This paper is an experience report about the appliance of participatory design methods for a gender sensitive approach. Investigating their appropriateness to gather gender specific insights, we are particularly interested in their potential of avoiding the recreation of gender stereotypes. In this context, we reflect the design of our research environments, methods and tools according to their unconscious gender assumptions which might cause stereotype answers. Our empirical study, called Women’s Phone, aimed both at involving female prospective users to avoid gender clichés and to critically investigate conventional and stereotypical design solutions of mobile phones. We judge the suitability of the methods used in two respects: • Their value in keeping researchers away from reproducing conventional gender images, • Their meaning as an incorporation of the researchers’ attitudes and its impact on the research results. We consider our set of ‘cultural probes’ used in the project as the strongest evidence of the researchers’ inherent gender assumptions. Therefore, we will explore the visibility of the ‘gender point of view’ in the probes and draw implications from it for future gender-sensitive design inquiries.