Vanya Wryter Consulting Services

Category: Business

  • Product Bias: What You Buy May Not Be For You

    Product Bias: What You Buy May Not Be For You

    Here’s something to think about the next time you make a purchase.

    For me, it started as an innocent observation. I was looking into buying a planner when I noticed that the full, page-sized planners were commonly in pink shades or floral patterns. What statement are the makers of these planners trying to make?

    I started to do some digging and found examples of product bias. Product bias results from items made for a specific group of people, with little to no research done to ensure that the product is meant for a larger group of users. For example, products made for right-handed people, or equipment designed for men, but used by any person. 

    The following are just some examples of product bias.

    Right-Handed Products for Left-Handed People

    Products designed for right-handed people can cause inconveniences for left-handed people. For example:

    • Almost all doors are designed to open using the right hand and hand rails are usually on the right side.
    • The measurements on a measuring cup will need to be read upside down or backward if you are left-handed. 
    • The buttons on watches are on an inconvenient side of the watch.
    • People at your dinner table are likely right-handed so all the tableware is set up for right-handed diners. Left-handed diners need to remember which side their cutlery and glasses are on.
    • Jobs are likely to supply you with a right-handed mouse. 

    Biased Design

    Everyday things are designed in a biased manner, from seatbelts to voice assistants.

    • Period tracking apps are pink. Just search “period tracking apps” and you will see pink logos and pink designs.
    • Seatbelts (until recently) were tested using crash test dummies with body shapes similar to the average male body, so female drivers are more likely to be killed or injured in car crashes.
    • Voice assistants such as Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana & Apple’s Siri have female names and voices. These products are described as “helpful,” “supportive,” and “humble” by the company.

    “Shrink It and Pink It”

    The saying “shrink it and pink it” refers to products that were originally designed for men and later made in a smaller size for women. In other words, those products were not originally designed for women (or for use by all adults).

    • Running shoes were designed to fit the typical shape of a man’s foot and later made in a smaller size to fit a woman’s foot.
    • Personal protective equipment (PPE) that fits women properly is hard to find. In healthcare, women deal with gowns that are too long. They wear masks that are too big to fit their face properly. 
    • “Women represent over half of the global population and in the US, they influence nearly 90% of all purchasing decisions. Yet only 19% of practicing industrial designers, also known as product designers, are women.”

    Racial Face Misidentification 

    Products designed for light-skinned faces encountered unexpected issues when the products were used with a wider range of human subjects. Some specific stories:

    • Mr. Alciné, a software engineer, used an A.I. in a Google online photo service six years ago to organize his photos into topics such as “birthday.” He noticed a folder labeled “gorillas.” Curious, he opened the folder and “found more than 80 photos he had taken nearly a year earlier of a friend during a concert in nearby Prospect Park. That friend was Black.” The photos had been mistagged. 
    • An Amazon facial recognition technology service had difficulty identifying the sex of female and darker-skinned faces. “According to the study, the service mistook women for men 19 percent of the time and misidentified darker-skinned women for men 31 percent of the time. For lighter-skinned males, the error rate was zero.”

    Key Takeaways

    Biases exist in the design of products designed specifically for one group of people, but sold to a wider group. For example, products designed for men and then marketed for use by all people. 

    What is your experience with products? Have you bought a product that you felt was biased?

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): Helpful or Harmful to Jobs?

    Artificial Intelligence (AI): Helpful or Harmful to Jobs?

    Is artificial intelligence (AI) harmful or helpful to our jobs? Will we lose our jobs to AI? Many already have faced the answers to those questions. People have lost work to AI and certain jobs will disappear completely. On the upside, AI has enhanced our work by eliminating our repetitive tasks. AI can also reduce the time it takes to complete tasks. Most importantly, AI will create new jobs. Let’s dive into this topic further.

    Will AI replace jobs?

    At first, artificial intelligence (AI) was helping us to do jobs better and faster by completing repetitive tasks. Having someone (or something) complete all the boring tasks is a good time saver. But AI will continue to improve to the point of replacing jobs and people. Here are some examples. 

    In customer service, bots answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) from customers, so staff are free to answer infrequent or more complex questions. Robot waiters can take dishes and drinks to customer’s tables. AI can use existing examples of writing and art to create stories and artwork similar to an existing style.

    Can AI help us to do our jobs better?

    AI is already helping us to do our jobs better and faster. It can help us to find errors in our writing. It can also learn from our writing style and remind us to use a spelling or word specific to our company or industry.

    It can act as a personal assistant to schedule meetings with clients and coworkers. It can generate automatic email responses so that customers will receive generated, immediate responses to their messages. Chatbots can handle frequently asked questions and common issues, handle inquiries and decide when a more complex situation needs to be passed to a human support agent.

    How can we foolproof ourselves from losing jobs to AI?

    AI will replace jobs in the future. It has already replaced jobs. If AI hasn’t replaced your job, chances are, your job will be affected by AI in some way, such as automating part of your job or changing the way you do your job.

    Jobs that AI won’t replace are those that require human interaction. For example, although AI can be used to teach in the classroom, it cannot replace the trust and close relationships that teachers have with their students. Teachers can intervene if there are arguments between students or help a student who is having personal issues at home. 

    AI cannot listen to a person’s problems and help a person through a mental health crisis. Similarly, it does not have the sensitivity to deal with a sudden job layoff, or answer a question about health benefit coverage that will have a severe impact on a person’s family.

    Why is AI beneficial for society?

    AI helps us to complete repetitive tasks more efficiently, freeing us to do other things. Instead of marking the same test a hundred times, AI can score all the tests in a matter of minutes, saving a human one to several hours of boring work.

    AI can also help people to improve their skills. For example, it can suggest ways for bad writers to improve their writing by identifying their spelling mistakes and suggesting better ways to write their sentences. This is not the same as replacing professional writers. People who need to write reports or emails at work aren’t going to invest in a professional writer to write an internal report. But they will appreciate having something to check their grammar before the report goes to their supervisor.

    Similarly, people will value a robot vacuum cleaner, pool cleaner, or pet food dispenser to help with chores around the house. One day, a robot may even be able to do all the basic housecleaning that people dislike. 

    However, technology cannot replace all tasks, especially those that require special skills. People who can afford it will want to hire writers to produce a piece of writing exactly to their specifications. People with expensive heirlooms or valuables will want the human touch to do the job right when they need a thorough cleaning of their homes.

    Key Takeaways

    As with any advancement in technology, jobs will disappear and jobs will be created. Jobs that require a human element will be the hardest for AI to replace. But AI will also provide us with many benefits, such as replacing boring and time-consuming tasks. Jobs will also be created that are related to the creation and maintenance of AI. 

    What do you think? How has AI affected your work?

  • Hustle Culture and the Pursuit of Goals

    Hustle Culture and the Pursuit of Goals

    Do you think putting in long hours of hard work is the key to success in today’s work environment? People talk about hustle culture as a necessary part of doing well at work. They brag about missing sleep and skipping meals to make more money and achieve their next promotion. What do you think?

    Is taking time off similar to being lazy? Do we want to look back at how we collect overtime hours like success badges to brag about?

    Some say hustle culture is necessary these days to reach the economic success we aim for. Food isn’t cheap and housing is barely affordable for some people. Quality of life is eating healthy, but unless we have the financial ability to buy the food we need, or afford the vacation that will give us the mental health break we need, hustle culture can’t be avoided.

    What do you think? Is hustle culture an important part of career success?

  • How Technology Has Changed How We Communicate

    How Technology Has Changed How We Communicate

    Repost

    How often have you sent an urgent text and impatiently waited for a reply? Texting etiquette says we should respond within a few hours at most – assuming we didn’t (gasp) forget our phone at home.

    Technology has changed the way we communicate, from the speed of communication to the quality of communication. Gone are the days when recent news became old because it took time to send a letter. We often assume the person we want to communicate with has an email account, mobile, or both.

    Technology has impacted how we communicate with family, friends, and coworkers. Let’s look at some examples of how much we’ve come to rely on tech to communicate with others.

    Messages, Email, and Apps

    How often do you say, “I’ll text you the info?” or “I’ll send you an email?”

    Only one generation ago, sending letters and Christmas cards by post was still trendy. The cost of a stamp was much less than what it is today, and all you had to do was wait a few days to a week for your letter to reach the recipient.

    It also wasn’t that long ago when we used dial-up – that horrid screech on the telephone line – to surf the net. You couldn’t get online privately either – first, you had to tell everyone in the household not to pick up the phone!

    These days, a long letter can be sent overseas by email in minutes and read by the recipient on their phone.

    You can send a voice or text message by any number of options: SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Instagram, Discord, Messenger, and many more.

    We also have many new social issues that we didn’t have more than a decade ago. Back then, we could “chicken out” and slam the phone when the answering machine clicked on, and we weren’t sure what to say.

    These days, it’s the psychological impact of the Read Receipt. If the other party has read your message but doesn’t reply, does it mean you’re not important, or they don’t care to reply? If you sent the message hours ago, but they didn’t open it, should you send another message in case the message was lost in cyberspace?

    And if you want to get with the times, what do you do if your email or message was opened days ago and you were ghosted?

    These days, we expect a response immediately, within an hour, or at least within twenty-four hours if it’s not urgent. After all, we can answer a question and send information instantaneously.

    We can even video chat a loved one while on a business trip or vacation to another country. Distance and time zones aren’t an issue anymore.

    Communication at Work

    Technology has closed the physical distance between people, work, and talent.

    Previously, you needed a system to keep track of the most recent version of a document. If employee A creates a file and sends it to two others for review, how could employee C and B coordinate feedback?

    With technology like Google Docs, many people from different offices in different cities can work on the same document without worrying about keeping track of which version is the most recent. It also introduces a whole new level of strategy.

    For example, it’s a little more challenging to tell your coworkers that you’re working on the document if you’re not showing as active in the file. It’s also a bit nerve-wracking if you’re writing a sentence and you know someone else is, in a sense, looking over your shoulder.

    Fun moments can arise, such as when I was working on a document and a cursor appeared. A coworker started to type a note addressed to me in the middle of a paragraph. The note was just to say Hello, how are you doing? Then he deleted the sentence.

    The upside of having files in a cloud, of course, is not worrying about what happens if your computer crashes or you need to access the file and keep working from another computer. You have a lot more flexibility.

    The ability to share files has changed the speed of communication. You can save your file and open it again to share in the board room without having to lug around your computer or a USB drive.

    If your talent is not writing or typing, you can record your meeting and have it transcribed into notes afterward. You can also use an app to correct your grammar and spelling. Then a click of a mouse can correct a mistake or rewrite an entire sentence in a second.

    Robot Editors

    With grammar check options and apps such as Grammarly and Hemmingway, one could say that we no longer need writing lessons. We can ask AI such as ChatGPT to finish our writing assignments using perfect grammar. Professional editors may also be out of a job one day because of AI.

    That “one day” won’t be for a while yet, so human editors will still be around. Even if you’re not thinking of hiring a professional editor, you still need to be your own word expert.

    Our smartphones aren’t yet smart enough to be fully trusted with our messages. Autocorrect can create some awkward situations, depending on what word your phone thinks you had in mind. Voice dictation can produce funny results too. I’ve studied some puzzling messages from a manager who said apologetically, “Siri likes to mess with me.”

    Grammar correction options in word processing or email programs are both good and bad. I’m grateful when I can’t remember if an obscure word is spelled with one “r” or two, and I can play around with letters until the program likes what I type.

    It’s also helpful if you’ve had a long day and your editing program kicks in so that you realize you just typed, “I’ll see you at the the meeting.”

    If you can’t remember grammar and punctuation rules, these grammar programs are great. If you’re an editor or a writer with strong grammar, technology can be annoying. You can find yourself fighting with a program that says your sentence is incorrect when your sentence is perfectly fine. You just have to know your grammar rules.

    Living Language

    Where will we be in the future? Will AI take over the job of professional writers? Will AI be a substitute for professional editors? The discussion is here now, yet the future is hard to predict. Any language, including English, is a living language. Professional editors’ forums debate the spelling of a word or a writing style. What wasn’t acceptable three years ago could become correct in five years.

    What we consider conventional or unconventional ways of writing may change ten years from today. Will technology be able to keep up with all the changes and adaptations and write as well as the most talented human? We’ll see.

    Key Takeaways

    Technology has impacted the speed and convenience of communication. The day has already arrived when we can ask AI to write our emails for us. Yet we can still have our fun with autocorrect and grammar check.

    What’s your opinion on the influence of technology on communication? Leave your comment below.

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  • 5 Reasons to Hate Remote Work

    5 Reasons to Hate Remote Work

    If you’ve been following these blog posts, you know I’m a strong advocate of remote work, but it’s not a perfect lifestyle. Like any work situation, there are days when remote work is irritating or totally stressful. So for the moment, at least, let’s look at five reasons to hate remote work.

    1 Getting locked out of the office

    The number one reason to hate remote work is a complete percent reliance on the internet. When your internet is down, it’s like getting locked out of the office and being left in the hallway with nothing to do, especially if your work files are saved on a cloud. You can’t ask the IT person to fix your tech issues – if you work from home, you are the tech person. Tech issues can also make meetings miserable. Your screen can freeze if the internet is slow and you miss out on what someone has just said. Your mic can stop working and you’re speed-typing your thoughts in the group chat. Bad tech = a crappy work day.

    2  Communication issues and isolation

    Remote work is like being locked in a room by yourself. You can’t just wander over to your coworker’s desk for a quick chat. You need to schedule or request a meeting, or message your coworker. In addition, direct messaging creates modern-day office paranoia. Say you just sent a message but your coworker doesn’t reply right away. Are they ignoring you? If hours pass, are they out-of-office or still ignoring you? 

    A whole social aspect of working in an office is missing, such as a festival or special food day. It’s a treat to report to the company cafeteria to celebrate (insert occasion) with (insert special food). If you work from home and want a special lunch, you need to make it yourself (which isn’t as special).

    3 Office furniture and office

    You live where you work, especially if you work in your kitchen. You get the furniture yourself, and pay for it or expense it, but it’s done on your own time, unlike at an office, where you ask and a desk or chair is delivered free to you. It’s the same with stationery. You can’t just raid the supply cupboard. You build up the supply yourself. If the room is too hot or too cold, you’ve got to fix it yourself.

    4 Dealing with misconceptions

    Remote work and work from home allows you more flexibility in your schedule, which is a great benefit. However, people who don’t work from home have misconceptions. Relatives assume that since I’m “home,” it’s okay to interrupt me to have a social conversation or ask if I can run an errand. At a party, a stranger assumed that since I worked from home and I could “work whenever I wanted,” I worked the bare minimum hours. He said that when I realized I had bills to pay, I would start working more hours like regular people. 

    5 Legal and long-lasting implications

    When you work remotely, you communicate with coworkers online through emails or texts. You can’t walk over to your coworker or pick up the phone to chat. In these work set-ups, you join a huddle or have a virtual chat for longer conversations. You send texts for shorter conversations, meaning your communication has a record. You must carefully word your message in case the wrong tone is inferred. Emojis help to show you’re joking or add politeness to a request. But if you’re angry, you need to take a moment and think about what you’ll say because after you calm down, you can’t take your words back.

    Key Takeaways

    Remote work is not for everyone. People who love to socialize may find remote work very isolating. Similarly, people who love collaboration or need a mentor may dislike remote work. Technology can also create frustrations, and some think remote workers don’t work as hard. On the upside, if you enjoy remote work, then you know that these frustrations can be overcome.

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