Kathy Wang
Kathy is the US-born daughter of Chinese-born parents. As an Asian-American, she experienced her childhood as a third culture kid. That meant always being afraid to be “too Asian,” as if she had to maintain a certain amount of “whiteness” to fit in, never mind that she was born and raised in the suburbs of Maryland. But that also meant being open-minded, and understanding that there are people from other parts of the world, because that’s where her family is from as well. That also meant finding a home in people, rather than places.
As a product designer, Kathy leverages her skills to make an impact in social issues that are close to her heart (racial equity, restorative justice, and animal welfare). She graduated from Cornell University, with her bachelors degree in China and Asia Pacific Studies, and her masters in Information Science and UX Design. Kathy is currently a product designer at IBM, based in Austin, TX.
For more, keep up with Kathy at kathywang.me or on Twitter as @kwangaroo.
Presentations
UX Camp Spring 2021
Using Maslow’s Hierarchy to Design for Minorities
Have you ever found yourself at a loss for what to say in response to “I don’t understand why we need to point out race… we’re all humans here?” Have you ever stood in line at the coffee shop, and overheard a heated argument, but went back and forth between wanting to stand up for the person being yelled at and thinking it was none of your business? Have you ever caught yourself in a situation where you just couldn’t tell if someone was being racist or not?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you’ll understand why Allied Voices was formed. We’re a platform that enables you to navigate your racial landscape by reading other people’s stories of similar incidents, and how they handled them.
Join us as we dive into how an Uber ride initially inspired the project, how we addressed the issue of coming off as tone-deaf in initially only addressing Asian-American struggles, how we took user trust into consideration (as we made design decisions on the way we displayed different types of content), and what surprising takeaways we found through rigorous user testing.
You’ll walk away with a new understanding of how to use your design skills for social impact, and how to approach, and even embrace, uncomfortable conversations as a designer.
