Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Rashan C.

A couple of months ago a trend emerged in the design and tech community. Sites featuring individuals that the website creator admired began to spring up.

Some of these sites are focused on women in the design and tech arenas, others are a list of inspirational individuals in the industry the site designer might look up to. Many of these sites feature mostly Caucasian designers with a few having at least one or two people of color. This is not a failing of the website creator, but it is a reflection of how few people of color there are in the design and tech fields.

As a response to sites like womenwho.design and mentorstofollow.design, UX Researcher Sybil Boone and I have created a Google spreadsheet that will eventually be turned into a website, to showcase people of color in the design and tech industries.

This google spreadsheet is our response to not seeing the diversity that many other industries enjoy. Look up any start-up website, few employees are people of color, and even fewer are actually designers. Most job placement websites feature few minorities in their ads for creative or tech people. Thus the question, how do we get more diversity into our industry?

It has been proven that when high school or college students see people like themselves in prospective industries, they are more inclined to explore fields where people like them are represented. When advertisements and websites feature designers of color, or even just someone of color behind a desk or at a whiteboard, this will encourage more interest in these fields among aspiring designers and those interested in coding.

With this google spreadsheet and its eventual evolution into a website, I hope to showcase not only to students but to agencies alike that there is an overlooked talent pool ready to be tap into. I hope to show other people of color currently in our industry that they are not alone, that there is fantastic work being done by people of color.

I, myself am a product designer with around 4 years in the industry and have just recently met other black designers by joining a Meetup group. (Shoutout to Victoria for the Black Designers in Tech NYC Meetup.com group.)

To put into focus, without this meetup group I would easily be able to count on one hand how many people of color I have met in my career.

We are not looking for a handout. We are not looking to be the token ethnic person in your ad agency to solve the diversity issue. We are looking for an fair chance to be judged only by the quality of our work and character.

This project is still in its infancy, a lot still needs to be thought out. But it’s a step in the right direction. Please send direct messages (DMs) to myself @rcasseus or Sybil @syboone any recommendations or any questions.

People Of Color In Design and Tech was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

People Of Color In Design and Tech

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