The sun is shining overhead. It’s making the days longer, and hotter. The birds seem to like it. I can hear them singing outside my office window in the early hours. But even the birds are seeking silence and shade by midday, perhaps hoping they will find the time to sing more tomorrow. For me, the path of the sun is just a reminder that another day has passed and that I really need to keep my eye on the Scrum Board. Like the birds, I’m starting early and enjoying the work. Unlike the birds, I brew another cup of coffee and power through midday. My feathered friends flutter away outside while I type import "package:flutter/material.dart" again and again inside. And yes, I’m similarly hoping that I will get more done tomorrow… but tomorrow always seems to get here faster than I expect.

Image of the silhouette of a person appearing to hold the sun on the horizon.
Untitled. Photo by Selvan B on Unsplash

I’m approaching the halfway point of my project and I love what I’m building. It is an app for women that focuses on data security and privacy. I have deliberately refrained from disclosing too many details about my project because I know that I am going to see this app through to completion (where completion means that it will be available in a store someday). What I don’t know is whether I will see it through to completion within the time frame of my Capstone.

I have managed my time well and I have worked diligently on my Sprint goals. Despite this, I’m feeling a bit like I’m measuring the coastline of an unknown continent.

The measured length of the coastline depends on the method used to measure it and the degree of cartographic generalization. Wikipedia: The Coastline Paradox.

Measuring the UK coastline with 62 mile units. Measuring the UK coastline with 31 mile units.
Left: The UK coastline measured with 62 mile units is 1,700 miles long.
Right: The UK coastline measured with 31 mile units is 2,100 miles long.

Like the Coastline Paradox, I find that depending on the unit of measure I select to identify my target audience, the work involved in creating my application significantly changes. “Why is this important,” you might ask? “You said you are building an application for women.” And I understand your query, because all women is a very clearly defined target audience. The problem is…. how do I make my app relevant to and usable by all women?

In general, women have been underrepresented in Tech, which means a woman’s experience has been underrepresented in technology. A woman specific app is, in most cases, an application that is created for a particular well-known subgroup of women. That means the technology is often catering to specific age groups, racial and economic profiles, and nationalities. As I embarked upon this capstone project, my goal was to include the women that I knew were out there but were being overlooked. I wanted to create something so inclusive that any human could use it, while still having it be an application serving women. Referring back to the Coastline Paradox, this means I need to “measure women” with a different unit than what technology has done in the past. This also means that the more women I work to include, the more development work there is to be done.

Transparent female mannequins.
Untitled image of mannequins. Photo by Anh Tuan To on Unsplash

Back to the Coastline Paradox. The country is all women. The unit of measure is a human being. The road ahead is long and windy. It is going to be difficult to capture every curve. It would be easier to cut those corners. Looking back, I couldn’t understand why more women weren’t being included in applications that were intended to serve them. Now, I still see the lack of inclusiveness, but I also see the other side of the picture. It is much harder to build something to serve everyone than it is to serve a small group of people. And, frankly, it is infinitely easier to build something to serve a group of people just like you than it is to serve a group that you do not identify with. As women have been historically underrepresented in tech, it makes sense that technology would only be serving an idealized, well-known subgroup. (Ahem. That still doesn’t make it right.)

Now as I hit up against the workload in my capstone, I have more empathy for the engineers who came before me. Maybe they were men, and maybe they weren’t. Maybe they wanted to make a quick buck catering to an underserved market, or maybe they saw an underserved community and tried to fill in the gap. The point is that it doesn’t matter. They tried. Being inclusive is challenging not because everyone dislikes people who aren’t just like them. It is challenging because everyone looks at the world through the lens of their own experience. I’m going to be working to widen that lens as I write my code for this mobile app. And if that means my Minimum Viable Product gets bigger, and the finish line gets pushed out… Well, so be it. This Capstone project isn’t about an MVP. I’m working on building something for the Maximum Viable Audience instead.

Quote: You didn’t come this far to only come this far.
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash