Empowerment Nudges
(2020 Ongoing)
What does empowerment look like? Is femininity jagged, angular or smooth? How can we draw trust or consent?
These are just a few of the questions asked in a series of focus groups around the theme of empowerment and gender. During these sessions, participants are given a wide range of creative materials and asked to relax and enjoy the tasks. The users are given 30 seconds to represent the words such as: femininity, expression, trust, consent, oppression, woman, trans, binary and more. The results have been enlightening, and I continue to compile these into a book.
Above are some of the symbols made by the group in response to “draw consent”.
The second iteration of empowerment nudges developed into a small pack of design probes sent to a diverse group of 10 people. They were asked to try and understand where gender enters their life in the everyday; through tasks of picture taking, diary entries and mapping activities. Above is a collation of some of the responses to a postcard making activity that asked the group to simply “draw gender”…
The Outcome
This is an ongoing project that keeps evolving, through my work in my business Lock Down Ladies. It has shown me the power of participatory design methods, and the power of drawing as a design tool for change.