1. Schemas for
the Real World
Carina C. Zona
@cczona

2. —xkcd #940
@cczona

3. Imagine walking through the world knowing that everyone’s first assumptions
about how you see yourself, who you love, and what feels right for you are
completely wrong. Now imagine signing up for a cool website, and then being
required to select an option from a drop-down menu that doesn’t include
anything that represents you....
!
You’ll feel defeated.You’ll want to argue that whatever they think they’re
learning from that drop-down menu, it’s not really true.You’ll want to tell
them that they’re adding to your humiliation by making you do this.You’ll want
to tell them that they’re missing a huge part of you…
—Sarah Dopp
@cczona

4. @cczona

5. "Normalization"

6. Construction of
social norms
@cczona

7. Database Normalization
Mirror real-world concepts and
their interrelationships.
@cczona

8. 'Hey, this is just a system I can figure out
easily!' is also a problem among engineers
first diving into the stock market.
—xkcd #592
@cczona

9. @cczona

10. Social Networks

11. Social

12. In real life
!
"I know your personhood better than you"
!
sounds presumptuous
@cczona

13. In real life
!
!
sounds presumptuous
@cczona

14. In real life
!
"Your existence isn't possible"
!
sounds clueless
@cczona

15. In real life
!
!
sounds clueless
@cczona

16. In real life
!
"Who you are is invalid"
!
sounds arrogant
@cczona

17. In real life
!
!
!
sounds arrogant
@cczona

18. @cczona

19. @cczona

20. Be conservative in what you do,
be liberal in what you accept from others.
-Postel's Law
@cczona

21. Schemas, plural
@cczona

22. Mental Schema
•
Pre-conceived ideas
•
Framework for representing some
aspect of the world
•
System of organizing & perceiving
new information
@cczona

23. Database Schema
•
Structure described in the database's
language
•
Blueprint for database construction
•
Describes how the real world is being
modeled
@cczona

24. @cczona

25. deeply intimate
@cczona

26. important relationships
@cczona

27. self-image
@cczona

28. Schemas define the
user experience.
@cczona

29. UX
&
Our schemas are
leaving people behind.
@cczona

30. "What benefit will
the user notice?"
@cczona

31. Evaluating from
user perspective
gives us focus.
@cczona

32. Coerced
Checkbox
Radio button
Select menu
Ranges
Guided
Corrective
Discretionary
Text Input
Textarea
@cczona

33. Coerced
Checkbox
Radio
Select
Guided
Corrective
Discretionary
Text Input
Textarea
@cczona

34. 11 years
@cczona

35. …the early crowd at MeFi were often
programmers and they hated the idea of
"dirty" data collection…
—Matt Haughey, founder
@cczona

36. All girl
Dangly bits
XY
Chicklet
Fella
Innie not outie
Queer
Convex
Fembot
Sideburns
Alto
Ambisextrous
It depends
Member of the
patriarchy
MYOB
@cczona

37. !
I speak using the
male gender, when
required by
language
!
!
!
50% quintessential
tomboy, 50% total
girly-girl
!
!
@cczona

38. !
Transgender
Genderqueer
@cczona

39. It was one of the earliest indications I'd
landed in the right place.
—MeFi user
@cczona

40. @cczona

41. Not amused
@cczona

42. Internationalization
is hellish, period.
@cczona

43. "What's your
legal gender?"
• Indeterminate
• X
• Sex Not Specified
• ––
@cczona

44. ...the most complicated thing I’ve ever
spent a lot of time learning about.
!
And I’ve spent a lot of time learning about
quantum mechanics...
—Randall Munroe, xkcd
@cczona

45. Ask.
@cczona

46. "Which pronouns do
you prefer?"
he/him/himself/his/his
she/her/herself/hers/her
they/them/themself/theirs/their
it/it/itself/its/its
by name
@cczona

47. "Which pronouns do
you prefer?"
he/him/himself/his/his
she/her/herself/hers/her
they/them/themself/theirs/their
personal name
other: ____________
@cczona

48. "Which pronouns do
you prefer?"
he/him/himself/his/his
she/her/herself/hers/her
they/them/themself/theirs/their
personal name
other: ____________
@cczona

49. @cczona

50. Home is the place where, when you have
to go there, they have to take you in.
—Robert Frost
@cczona

51. Social Research

52. Exhaustive
Every possible option

53. Mutually Exclusive
No overlap exists between them

54. @cczona

55. `
@cczona

56. @cczona

57. @cczona

58. "What user experience does this schema
drive us toward?"
@cczona

59. Data doesn’t have
to be for analysis.
@cczona

60. Data can be sheer
expressiveness.
@cczona

61. What we want
What we get
• Structured
• Predictable
• Validations, exceptions
• Conditionals, partials
• Relational
• Indexed
• Premature optimization
• Exhaustive
• Cultural variability
• Individual POV
• Moving target
• Easy analytics
• Data-driven decisions
• Decisions based on false
premises
@cczona

62. "What is your religion,
if any?"
@cczona

63. @cczona

64. What is your religion, if any?
Christian
76%
Other
4%
None
15%
Don't Know or Refused
5%
@cczona

65. What is your religion?
Christian
76%
Other
4%
n/a
20%
@cczona

66. What is your religion?
Christian
76%
Other
24%
@cczona

67. Religion:
@cczona

68. People aren't
edge cases.
@cczona

69. Balancing between
approaches
@cczona

70. @cczona

71. Required
Checkbox
Radio
Select
Autosuggest
Minimal Suggest
Optional
Textarea
Text
@cczona

72. Unguided Text
Of those who use MetaFilter's gender field,
40% of responses are: f, m, female, male.

73. Optional Select
60% of Facebook users select a relationship status

74. We want everyone to
feel excited what we've
built
@cczona

75. We want users to feel
passionate about their
involvement
@cczona

76. Analytics, investments,
& monetization are
based on a premise that
data is accurate
@cczona

77. @cczona

78. Required
Checkbox
Radio
Select
Guided
Corrective
Discretionary
Textarea
Text
@cczona

79. ADD column gender
NOT NULL
VARCHAR(6)
DEFAULT "female"
@cczona

80. ADD column gender_identity
NOT NULL
VARCHAR
@cczona

81. Required
Checkbox
Radio
Select
Guided
Alteration
Optional
Textarea
Text
@cczona

82. t.string "relationship_status",
:null => true
!
@cczona

83. Facebook
Single
In a relationship
Engaged
Married
It's complicated
Open relationship
@cczona

84. Facebook
Single
Widowed
In a relationship
Separated
Engaged
Divorced
Married
Civil union
It's complicated
Domestic partnership
Open relationship
!
@cczona

85. Google+
Single
Separated
In a relationship
Divorced
Engaged
Civil union
Married
Domestic partnership
It's complicated
I don't want to say
Open relationship
Widowed
@cczona

86. @cczona

87. It's a scope.
@cczona

88. marital_status?
Single
Separated
In a relationship
Divorced
Engaged
Civil union
Married
Domestic partnership
It's complicated
I don't want to say
Open relationship
Widowed
@cczona

89. legal_marital_status
Single
Separated
In a relationship
Divorced
Engaged
Civil union
Married
Domestic partnership
It's complicated
I don't want to say
Open relationship
Widowed
@cczona

90. relationship_status
Single
Separated
In a relationship
Divorced
Engaged
Civil union
Married
Domestic partnership
It's complicated
I don't want to say
Open relationship
Widowed
@cczona

91. singleness_status
@cczona

92. singleness_rating
0
No chance whatsoever
100%
Suuuuuper duper single
@cczona

93. Married
Divorced
It's Complicated
In a Relationship
Widowed
Single
@cczona

94. I like to be truthful, and "It's Complicated"
is really deceiving. It is not complicated. I
am separated from my husband, who I am
still legally married to.
—Facebook user
@cczona

95. @cczona

96. buffer overflow
@cczona

97. Choose (one):
evasive
inauthentic
@cczona

98. Facebook relationship status by user age
srsly?
@cczona

99. We build or break
community with each
line of code.
@cczona

100. Modeling the
real world is complex.
@cczona

101. Assuming we know
who users are
surrenders
opportunity to
learn who they are.
@cczona

102. Quality
@cczona

103. Specificity
@cczona

104. Adaptability
@cczona

105. Loyalty
@cczona

106. @cczona

107. Questions?
Conversation?
Oh. Hell. Yeah.
@cczona
cczona@gmail.com
http://cczona.com
Carina C. Zona

108. Resources
@cczona

109. Data Science &
Information Architecture
•Sociological normalization
•Database normalization
•Using Machine Learning On Social Networks To Figure Out What You Should
Read On The Web
•NoSQL Data Modeling Techniques
•"Data & Reality," by William Kent
• "Bad Data Handbook," Q Ethan McCallum
•Data Science of the Facebook World
@cczona

110. Relationships
•"Does Facebook Hurt Relationships?"
•"Facebook Adds LGBT-Friendly Relationship Status Options"
•"Facebook Targeting by Relationship Status & Workplace"
•"Your Facebook Relationship Status: It's Complicated"
•"Gay Marriage: The Database Engineering Perspective"
@cczona

111. Sex & Genders
•“Disalienation: Why Gender is a Text Field on Diaspora”
• “Gender & Drop Down Menus”
•“Sex & Gender”
•“Bucket Gender”
•"Recommendations for Inclusive Data Collection of Trans People"
@cczona

112. Names
•"Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names"
•"Your Last Name Contains Invalid Characters"
•W3C Internationalization: "Personal Names Around the World"
•Spanish Names
•Chinese Names
@cczona

113. More
•"Redesigning the Country Selector"
•"American Religious Identification Survey, Summary Report 2009"
•"Linguistic Potluck: Crowdsourcing Internationalization in Rails"
@cczona

114. Image Credits
Postsecret
Flickr
Facebook
FetLife
OKCupid
Kotangle
Google+
cutestpaw.com
Metafilter
hdwallpapers.in
Diaspora
xkcd
@cczona

115. Many Thanks
Chiu-Ki Chan
Corey Haines
Estelle Weyl
Heather Rivers
Heroku
Jack Danger Canty
Jeremy Dunck
!
Josh Susser
Michele Titolo
NIRD, LLC
Renée De Voursney
Sarah Mei
San Francisco Sex Information
Sylvain Abélard
Yoz Grahame
@cczona

116. Get in Touch
Carina C. Zona
@cczona
http://cczona.com
cczona@gmail.com
http://slideshare.net/cczona
http://linkedin.com/in/cczona
@cczona