Diversity and Design

Did you know that you can have a total cholesterol over 500 and still be alive? I didn't, but diversity in UX design is how I found out.

Many years ago I worked for a pharmacuetical agendy of record that provided the sales team with marketing materials presented to doctors. One of the products we supported was for a cholesterol lowering medication that we were testing out messaging for.

Charts and graphs were created based on the research data provided to us to make the case to physicians that the product lowered total cholesterol over placebos... and was safe. (it really was too. still out there today). It's pretty easy to imagine the graph. A bar chart, total cholesterol on the vertical, bars for each of study groups. Men, Women, Age, etc.

It was super clear, the product worked for everyone. The client liked it, we liked it, confidence was high so it went into customer testing. For the first day all the middle-aged, white doctors would nod their heads and agree. It wasn't until the end of the second day when a younger hispanic physician joined and immediately said "None of my patients are represented here."

The chart, and data, showed total numbers up to the higher 300's, with the max being 400. He went on to explain that his patients from his community mostly have numbers over 500! My jaw dropped.

I ended up seeing this from two lenses. One is that we caught it because the research was diverse, but the second lens is that the design wasn't. Had it been we might have had a subject matter expert who's lived experience would have known that we weren't being fully representitive.

This experience happened over a decade ago but I feel like its still an appropriate conversation to have. I work at a company that takes diversity very seriously with the top of leadership setting the bar, and I'm increadibly thankful for that.. I hope that sharing this story inspires more to consider why design isn't done until it's diverse.