The secret ingredient to Inclusive Software Development

Software engineering is in a diversity crisis. Research shows that software teams that lack diversity also miss the opportunity of leveraging diverse perspectives and experiences and which, in turn, are essential to understanding the needs of diverse software users. 

Diversity however is only half of the story. Without an inclusive climate, conflict can thwart the benefits of diversity in software teams; to be inclusive, development teams respect and leverage the unique perspectives of its different members, and have a heightened ability to develop inclusive software. In this talk I wish to start a conversation about design processes, tools and education environments that support the development of inclusive teams. I describe our research and observations into empathy-based design methods that student teams employed in community-driven experiential projects in our INSPIRE Program at the University of Victoria (inspireuvic.org), as well as studies of software practitioners.