The 6 habits of culturally competent designers are critical tools highlighted in the book Design for Identity: How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World, a go-to manual for any organization that wants to know what it looks like to activate the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in practice. Designing for identity is the key to getting beyond corporate statements about social justice and diversity recruiting statistics. It’s about evolving the design process to ensure that customers’ cultural identities are explored and incorporated from project initiation through execution and that designers' interpretations of identity truly reflect and honor what's most meaningful to customers.

The 6 habits are behaviors designers can adopt to engage in a brave new dialogue where identity and culture are no longer taboo; they're actually embraced and celebrated in day-to-day interactions. As the demographics and dynamics of our society continue to shift, the 6 habits will help designers show up in ways that resonate with the diverse public we serve and bring about more positive outcomes for historically excluded people, including those among their colleagues and their future customer base.