Socioeconomic Mag

The SocioEconomicMag Method (short for "SocioEconomic (SES) Inclusiveness Magnifier") is a method for finding SES-inclusiveness issues in software features. It is an analytical process for a team of software developers and/or user experience (UX) professionals to use to evaluate their products.

Recent research suggests that individual differences in ways people use software features often cluster by socioeconomic status. Before SocioEconomicMag, UX/developers did not have tools or methods to find features that do not take into account common usage patterns of different socioeconomic statuses. The SocioEconomicMag method was devised to help UX professionals and software developers do that.

Research shows that there are many statistically significant differences in the ways individuals tend to go about things. Some examples of this research are shown here: https://gendermag.org/sesmag/foundations.php. These differences can impact the way people use software in at least six problem-solving style types, which we call "facets". SocioEconomicMag uses these facets to find inclusiveness issues in software that often cluster by socioeconomic status.

The method is analagous to debugging, not versioning or customizing. Thus, it does not advocate for "low-SES" and "high-SES" versions of your software, because there is no such thing as a "typical" member of any socioeconomic status. Rather, it advocates for a debugging approach, by removing "SES-inclusiveness bugs" you find one at a time, resulting in one less inclusivity bug in the software.