User Accounts often asks that users offer normative & static options for gender, name, sex, and more, disproportionately affecting the LGBTQ+ population. This website will show user account design features that may result in LGBTQ+ misrepresentation and exclusion. The following research informed a digital playbook that aims to upskill product professionals to implement LGBTQ+ inclusive design as a forethought within product development, which you can find here.
Desire to share representative information.
In many user account interfaces, the options provided are limited, and restrictive. In this facebook sign up example, users are limited to using either “he,” “she,” or “they” when they click custom gender, ignoring the existence of gender fluid pronouns such as “she/they,” “he/they,” etc.
"The lack of options and the way they bunch together the other options that aren't just male or female, like non-binary, trans, gender fluid, everything else. It's either you are cis or something else."
The Data
This bar graph shows LGBTQ+ users' desires to be presented accurate representative information to fill when signing up for user accounts, however, the example signup screen lacks a multitude of drop down options for users to accurate identify as they would like resulting in misrepresentation.
Hesitancy to share representative information.
As marginalized groups, LGBTQ+ users are hesitant to share information due to lack of trust, and high values of data privacy and safety. In the screenshot, users' information are publicly visible with no options for anonymity.
"There's definitely some trauma around it, too, you know, it's like, is it always safe to identify in some way that's…different in some ways. So it's just not so easy always to [share information to a platform] that you don't feel safe with."
The Data
The sankey diagram shows users varying comfort in sharing pronoun information across platforms, however, some users show hesitancy in sharing such information. The below account makes this information publicly visible, which can result in higher levels of discomfort for some LGBTQ+ users.
Reluctantly sharing representative information.
Due to required fields, users are forced to comply in sharing information, and with inaccurate options, they result in filling out information that is misrepresentative of their true identities.
"I'm just so used to it, I'm used to choosing all these markers about yourself forever and I'm desensitized to it. Ugh, this is what I have to do even if it's not truly how I want to fill it out. It's just how it goes."
The Data
Since the example below has required fields for gender, users are forced to provide information that they may not necessarily have otherwise chosen to give. The bar chart on the right shows users responses to Q12. While users did feel somewhat included, given that the below example is a social media app, we can explore the nuances that come with sharing information across varying platforms in exploring Q11.
Researchers surveyed all users on their comfort levels associated with sharing SOGI related data with different types of industries, gauging how an industry affected users’ hesitance, resistance, and compliance. Users were able to multi-select all industries with which they were comfortable sharing.
Overall, users were most comfortable sharing SOGI-related data with Telehealth Apps, followed closely by Social Media and Dating Apps. Game or Puzzle apps ranked least comfortable across almost all data fields. Hotel or Vacation Rental Apps and Finance Apps, while ranking near comfortable for Legal and Preferred Names, were among the least comfortable industries for sharing other SOGI data.
This guide outlines the best practices of how to implement inclusive user profiling on digital/computing systems for the LGBTQ+ community. Through a mixed methods research approach, this research collects design best practices that center online inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community that are culminated in a 'playbook'. The pages of this playbook are as shown on this page.
See final page of this book for a QR code to the playbook.
LGBTQ+ individuals often find community online, whether or not they disclose their data. One aspect that might affect disclosure is that miscategorization and misrepresentation can lead to negative physical and mental health effects – as seen in the U.S. where LGBTQ+ Adults are more likely to experience symptoms of Anxiety and Depression.
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Data Source: Pew Research
To ensure inclusive design, authors of the playbook conducted a competitive analysis of current user accounts. On the left, you will see the data points similar to the sankey below and what they might improve on. Explore the sankeys for specific industry considerations.
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70% of Product Professionals we spoke to had mid-senior level positions in their company. The power to make impact can rest with these people and how they lead their teams.
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Considering users' sentiments and experiences navigating user accounts, this research highlights experiences of misrepresentation, distrust, and exclusion when users are subjected to limited or inaccurate options during the process of disclosing personal information across digital user account platforms. As LGBTQ+ populations continue to experience hardships offline, it is imperative that their online experiences provide micro-affirmations about their identities. Empowering PMs and those who help develop digital products is certainly one path to reducing hardships on the LGBTQ+ community.
Product Professionals can read, explore, and actively engage with bit.ly/LGBTInclusive_UAGuide now!
