Meet 8 Black Product Designers Building Inspirational And Inclusive Tech Communities
In the tech industry, less than 5% of the workforce is African-American, and we know the tech sector has a long way to go in fixing diversity issues. The following list is a short intro to just some of the Black product designers who are flourishing in Silicon Valley, the corporate world, and beyond. They are creating incredible experiences, and invaluable products, and are supporting the next generation of designers.
Mariam Braimah
Mariam is a product designer at Netflix. She is also the founder of Kimoyo Fellowship, a design program teaching the skills required to become an entry-level UI/UX designer at Nigeria’s leading tech companies. Their inaugural cohort in Nigeria selected the top five candidates, who were trained by lead designers from the world’s best tech companies such as Netflix, Flutterwave, Twitter, Lyft, and Paystack.
Karen Santos
Karen is a product designer at PicPay, but she is also building an inspiring community through her platform UX Para Minas Pretas. This is a dedicated space for Black female UX Designers in Brazil. Karen is passionate about promoting equity amongst Black female designers in the technology sphere.
LaTiesha Caston
LaTiesha Caston is a product designer at Facebook enthusiastic about holistic, accessible, and inclusive design. She has a passion for solving problems to make life easier for anyone with any background and solve a problem in a valuable and inclusive way.
Daniel Autry
Daniel Autry is a product designer at the Washington Post. Daniel is also a developer and behavioural researcher fascinated by the social product space. His work involves the intersection of design and mental health. Before joining The Post, he studied how college students can better care for their mental health and used the research to help design a university telemental health platform with UniWellness.
Wes O’Haire
Wes O’Haire is a product designer at Dropbox. Wes is the founder of BlacksWhoDesign, a database highlighting inspiring Black designers in the industry. The mission is to inspire new designers, encourage people to diversify their feeds, and for non-Black designers and recruiters to discover exceptional new talent.
James Rhymer
James Rhymer is a Lead Product Designer at Facebook AI, imagining the future of Inclusive AI, Creativity, and Civic Discourse. James is also passionate about mentorship and finds joy in inspiring young creatives, engineers, and entrepreneurs to pursue new paths that they might otherwise overlook without relatable representation in the industry.
Lenora Porter
Lenora Porter works at Salesforce as a product designer. She also manages Black Women in Product Design, which is a dedicated space for Black women designers to learn and collaborate with one another.
Jamal Nichols
Jamal Nichols is a Senior Product Designer at Facebook. Jamal is also the founder of Truth About Design, providing people of all ages and backgrounds with guidance and coaching in the design industry.
By no means is this an exhaustive list. Check out these websites Blacks Who Design and Women Who Design to see more inspirational and talented Black designers.
