Move with pride
Inclusion & Equity
Transgender and non-binary individuals faced challenges on the Uber platform due to the lack of recognition and support for their identity. This negatively impacted their sense of belonging, safety, and overall engagement.
Design process
UX Research Methodology and Key Insights
User Research: Conducted interviews with transgender and non-binary users to understand their pain points and preferences.
Key Insights:Misgendering incidents created discomfort and reluctance to use the platform. The inability to display chosen names and pronouns led to feelings of exclusion.
Development Process
Co-Creation: I co-led the design of this solution with a content designer and collaborated closely with the Safety and Identity teams. Since the functionality would be implemented in a section of the app outside our direct domain, this cross-functional collaboration was essential to ensuring seamless integration.
Testing and Validation: Conducted usability testing to validate the experience, including testing pronouns for each region and language to determine which to prioritize initially.
Final Solution
The MVP allowed users to select and display up to three pronouns from a predefined list, promoting respect for diverse gender identities. Recently, we expanded this functionality globally, supporting English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. With this expansion, users can now select up to four pronouns, further enhancing personalization and inclusivity.
Impact
Positive feedback highlighted a measurable increase in engagement and sense of belonging among transgender and non-binary users.
Localized pronouns in multiple languages reinforced respect for users' native languages.
However, we also received significant negative feedback from individuals who didn’t understand the importance of pronouns in promoting inclusion. Additionally, some drivers in online forums mocked the functionality, expressing a desire to include sarcastic pronouns like “tip/me” to ridicule its significance rather than engage with it respectfully.
Reflections and Next Steps
Our decision to present only a predefined set of pronouns for each language, while not fully inclusive (as it doesn’t allow users to create their own pronouns to represent increasingly diverse groups), proved to be the right approach. By limiting customization, we successfully mitigated the risk of misuse, as evidenced by comments in forums and feedback from some users.
This choice balanced inclusivity with practicality, ensuring the feature remained respectful and effective.
Continue iterating based on user feedback and adjust the functionality to better align with the needs of global users.
Expand language support to include additional nationalities, further increasing the inclusivity of the platform.
Explore additional safeguards to address external misconceptions and encourage respectful conversations about the importance of pronouns.