Empowering Equality in Tech: A Conversation with UX Designer, Sjoera Roggeman

About UX-Design

As a UX Designer, my focus is on creating positive user experiences. I engage directly with users to understand their needs. This involves extensive research, user interviews, and designing interfaces that we test with users to ensure clarity and usability.

Inclusion and gender-diversity in the Tech Industry

Inclusion means evaluating individuals based on their skills and qualities, regardless of factors like race, sexuality, or gender. This approach allows everyone to add value to a company or society.  

In my field, promoting inclusivity is a top priority. I try to ensure that everyone, including people with visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive or other impairments, can use the product effectively.  

Over my 12 years in the industry, based on my personal experience I initially thought the number of women was increasing, especially in the development area. However, recent statistics show a decline in the representation of women in tech, with only 26% of the workforce being female and hardly 27% of leadership roles held by women. We still have a long way to go in achieving gender diversity. 

In my team, we have a good mix of genders, with 4 women and 5 men. This brings different perspectives to our work, enhances our problem-solving abilities and enriches our overall team dynamic! 

The Importance of Gender Representation in Addressing Bias

Gender representation is crucial for tackling bias in the industry. For example, it has been shown that speech technology often performs better with male voices due to biased data. 

By having an equal proportion of women and men in tech, we ensure that both perspectives are considered in the development of technologies. This helps to identify and rectify biases that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

Watch Sjoera's take on inclusion in the Tech industry in our latest LinkedIn video.