Queer Design Club

I’m a researcher, design lead and public speaker on design and ethics and recently, on intentionally integrating design and agile.

How does being queer inform your work?

One of my favorite articles to point to in terms of being bisexual/nonbinary on the internet and how designers and engineers seem to fail us is "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names." Existing in the in-between and not-at-all categories of gender and sexuality means that when I'm looking at something that the people around me say, "men prefer X" or "women prefer X," my first reaction is, "Really? Why?" Because if we're not considering the "why" of behavior or preference, we really don't know anything at all.

What are your favorite pieces of queer visual culture?

I'm very inspired by video games and interactive art, and as such, Anna Anthropy's "dys4ria" was a very impactful piece of visual storytelling for me (http://www.digiart21.org/art/dys4ia). The simplicity of the iconography and the sheer frustration of playing the game is so tactile, so immediate that the player can instantly understand what it feels like to be in a body that's not your own.

Which other queer people inspire you?

Honestly, a lot of my inspiration comes from video game and art. Folks like Anna Anthropy, Porsepine and Robert Yang make interactive experiences that tell trans, lesbian and gay stories in a very visceral way, and folks like Kevin Wada who take fanart and "queer" it in a surprisingly delightful way inspire me.