A website that allows users to explore their biases and learn about stereotypes through interactive activities and research-based resources.

There are so many stereotypes in the world, from “blondes are dumb” and “girls are weak” to “boys are slobs” and “teenagers are troublemakers.” And while many of us are aware of the damage these unfair assumptions can cause, we seldom stop to wonder if we ourselves are biased. We would like to think that we’re decent human beings, that the people who believe these stereotypes couldn’t be more different than us. But the truth is, biases are everywhere. In fact, they are often expressed subtly and implicitly, and the people who express them may not even realize what they’re doing.

Our website challenges people to recognize their own biases through insightful activities and informational resources. The activities include riddles that take advantage of stereotypes and a sorting exercise that aims to help users identify their gender biases. On the resources page, there are thought-provoking articles and videos for people to learn more about stereotypes and how to overcome them.

We built this website using HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript in the Bootstrap framework. We used JavaScript to make the sorting interactive for the user and HTML/CSS for the basic structure and styling of the website. Prior to coding the project, we designed wireframes and prototypes in Figma.

The most difficult part of this project was matching our ideas with reality. For example, choosing a color palette for the website. What colors would be aesthetic and yet also complement our theme? Another obstacle was coding the interactive sorting game. Neither of us had much experience with JavaScript, so we learned something new from coding the activities.

We managed our time wisely and were able to make consistent progress throughout the weekend. We’re proud to present a responsive, interactive website that contains valuable resources and activities for users.

Through the process of creating our website, we gained new insights into the coding languages we used. Additionally, reading the articles and watching the videos featured in our project was an interesting way to learn more about bias and stereotyping.

Some things we could add to our project are more activities and a greater selection of articles and videos, as well as possibly a community forum for people to talk about their personal experiences. We could also work on making the website more repsonsive and mobile friendly. And although it’ll be a while before everyone is treated perfectly equally, we’re hopeful that projects like this will help people be more aware of their own biases-- and work to overcome them.

Submitted to Theta Hacks on January 17, 2021