Meet the designer empowering women in tech through nail art

Stemming from a long-standing interest in how female-oriented technical fields are not respected in the same way as their male counterparts, US technology designer, Joselyn McDonald, started using nail art to explore how the traditionally feminine nail profession can be used for technological advancement. Her high-tech nail designs can pay for the bus, store files and more.

“My project, Digits, is about examining how nail art, which is traditionally considered a feminine aesthetic, can be used as an advantage for interacting with technology,” Joselyn tells Scratch.

“After years of researching and designing technologies, I was frustrated that women’s experiences are often overlooked in the process of design, because male is seen as the default.”

She gives the example of early virtual reality (VR) headsets being tested exclusively on men and with oestrogen affecting how the eyes and brain process motion, the prototypes resulted in women becoming sick – a situation that may have been avoided if they had been included in the design process.

The fact that typically female technical fields like nail art (and Joselyn cites sewing as another example) aren’t considered technical or valued in that way by most is what inspired her to created her high-tech designs.

“I thought about how refreshing it would be if female aesthetics created advantages in the realm of tech – for instance, what if your nails could be embedded with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that allowed you to quickly pay for the bus?” Joselyn comments.

The designer made her bus pass nails idea into a reality and reveals that they are her favourite nail design.

“Nail artists are an under-celebrated group, using chemical formulas, specialised toolsets and technical processes,” Joselyn continues. “I hope that nail techs recognise how technical their profession is and feel pride in how quickly the nail art field advances, for example with explorations of 3-dimensionality and sculpture. I also hope they consider how their field is truly one of the most innovative I’ve seen and keep growing.”

But what Joselyn is most proud of is the opportunities that nail art has given to females within the technology realm. “I’ve had teachers reach out to me about how to educate their female students to add LEDs to their nails, as a way to engage them to explore tech concepts in an exciting way that aligns with their interests. That has been very meaningful to me,” she says.

Visit Joselyn’s website here and follow her on Instagram here.