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When a user starts to build an avatar, the default should not bias toward a specific gender or ethnicity.

It is important that we do not impose a specific gender or race when a user creates their digital representation. We need to make sure the Avatar creation process is inclusive and open to diversity.

We should present more choices beyond the binary.

We are looking at how the US government now allows an applicant to identify as non-binary. This is amazing progress! If the government allows people to define their identities beyond binaries, surely we can as well.

One idea we are working on internally is to generate a random set of avatars you can use as a starting point. Instead of picking from a standard Male or Female. Imagine being given 4 or 6 options to start from that range in diversity through a few different dimensions like age, gender, shape, ethnicity and ability.

 

This allows users to not feel forced to choose from a rigid set of quote-unquote default avatars.

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https://travel.state.gov/

Disclaimer

These were written aspirationally. I did not write these guidelines with my employer’s specific context in mind. These were written knowing that there are some aspects of these that we already do really well and some that we are still working on as an industry.

Copyright images used are credited inline. Additional images were generated with Midjourney.

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