{"id":4377,"date":"2021-04-06T16:49:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T16:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/?p=4377"},"modified":"2024-01-16T14:38:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T14:38:49","slug":"design-for-good-with-sarah-fathallah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxdesigninstitute.com\/blog\/design-for-good-with-sarah-fathallah\/","title":{"rendered":"Design for good: Tackling social issues with Sarah Fathallah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Fathallah is an independent social designer and researcher. She uses her passion for global development and design to tackle important social issues. In this interview, she discusses what social design is, how to be more critical and ethical as a designer, and the importance of mentorship in UX.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your career background<\/h2>\n

I studied liberal arts and focused on social sciences and political sciences – I was pretty much a nerd about Middle Eastern and North African studies. I then went on to study\u00a0finance, which I did not enjoy! So, I moved to a more creative, hands-on\u00a0design programme in Paris.<\/p>\n

When I graduated, I wanted to apply the tools of design to global development.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wanted to work at the intersection of the social sector and design. My first roles always had one or the other but I really wanted to work on both.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t find full-time work because most organisations where I wanted to work couldn’t sponsor my visa as an immigrant or didn\u2019t have positions that fit my profile. Because of the funding of the social sector, I\u00a0decided to go freelance, even though it felt risky!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve freelanced for the last five years.\u00a0I work with impact driven organisations like non-profits, social enterprises, and government agencies in areas like healthcare, education, child welfare, and financial inclusion.<\/p>\n

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What is social design?<\/h2>\n

I define social design as applying design methodologies to the social sector.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I try not to use terms like social impact or social change because I\u2019ve worked with people whose speciality is impact measurement, and know not to make claims about the impact that design processes have unless there is rigorous evaluation suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n

What is freelancing like?<\/h2>\n

I love it so much. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do anything else!\u00a0Learning from my colleagues and the communities that we engage with keeps me on my toes.<\/p>\n

I can go from learning about sesame farming in Myanmar to the use of tech by volunteers on electoral campaigns in the US to access to abortion information in Ghana. I feel so lucky to get to be transformed by these different worlds!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On another level – I have more agency to say no to as a freelancer compared to working in an organisation.\u00a0I can have a set of moral questions when approaching certain projects\u00a0and decide whether or not the engagement is the right fit for me, my skillset, and my values.<\/p>\n

What critiques do you have of the design industry?<\/h2>\n

I question if we are involving communities in our design in a fair, equal and healthy way. I\u2019ve seen examples of work, including my own, that have failed to do so. They\u00a0generally fall into\u00a0one of three buckets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The first<\/b>\u00a0is the potential for design to be triggering or traumatising, especially when discussing sensitive topics and asking design participants to recall painful memories.<\/p>\n

The second<\/b> is the extractive nature of design. When you engage with communities, the designers are getting more out of it in terms of access to people and information. Designers also get the fame, credit, awards, and authorship for the work.<\/p>\n

The third<\/b> bucket is this power imbalance between experts and community members. Both are needed to solve problems, but sometimes the experts are the only ones being paid. This can perpetuate imperialistic and neocolonial undertones in how we work.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come across numerous examples of these throughout the years and I\u2019ve\u00a0also been involved in them. It didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n

We were taking methods that were\u00a0first used in the commercial space and just blindly applying them to the social sector. We need to question how they are going to fall short considering the complexity of the issues in this space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sarah discusses her work with NYU’s Design Thinking Roundtable\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n