As much as we humans share similarities, there are also things that make us unique. These differences—be they physical, mental, cultural, religious, geographical, racial, or anything else—come into play in many cases.
It’s often the case that when we use certain products or services or enjoy both public and private living spaces, there are times when we may feel excluded due to specific designs with preconceived notions. Thankfully, over the past few years and more, a new understanding of design has taken center stage, aiming to be more inclusive and accommodating of our differences.
That principle is inclusive design. In this article, we delve into what it is to gain a better understanding, focus on its dimensions and principles, look at where it can be applied, and a lot more. Keep reading to explore this fascinating development that can impact people’s lives in exceptional ways..
Understanding Inclusive Design
Design applies to almost every aspect of our lives. From the door handles on restrooms to the size of the fonts that we see on our screens. It applies to products, services, and the built environment.
When it comes to inclusive design, it is viewed as a methodology and a process that takes into account a broad range of aspects that make us different and which create our varied experiences. It aims to create multiple options and opportunities for us so that we do not feel excluded or discriminated against.
With inclusion and diversity becoming such prominent features of our lives, it’s only natural that design should be no different. And it comes with a broad range of advantages that should definitely not be ignored. We cover these in more detail below, so stick around to find out more.
Inclusive Design: Dimensions and Principles
Many prominent people have contributed to the debate around inclusive design in a broad range of industries. From architecture to web design, user experience (UX) and the user interface (UI), what has emerged is a shared recognition that there are common dimensions and principles of inclusive design that should be adopted across a broad spectrum of industries. Let’s take a closer look at each of these subdomains below.
Dimensions
The three dimensions of inclusive design are the following:
- Start by recognizing diversity and uniqueness: The very first dimension of inclusive design starts by recognizing diversity and uniqueness. In the past, many designers (irrespective of industry) focused on the median user without considering those outliers who stray from the average in one way or another. As such, mass solutions that aim to cater to many people often have the opposite effect of alienating users. Segregated solutions also do not have the desired effect and neither do adaptable ones. For this purpose, it is essential to recognize self-determination and self-knowledge and facilitate solutions that foster a sense of greater awareness and mindfulness of our differences.
- Follow inclusive processes and use inclusive tools: The second dimension of inclusive design focuses on the processes and tools. But processes and tools are often developed by people for people. These people tend to be design teams. But without lived experiences that they can share from being on the “extreme” end of the spectrum, the process is likely to treat users and customers with different needs merely as research subjects. That’s why the processes, people, and tools involved in inclusive design should be inclusive in and of themselves.
- Consider the broader beneficial impact: The final dimension of inclusive design considers the broader beneficial impact. This means designers should not aim to create something for an intended beneficiary. Instead, it should “trigger a virtuous cycle of inclusion” by recognizing the interconnectedness between users and systems. That’s why looking beyond the product or service and being aware of the greater context within which they operate is so essential and carries with it an important level of responsibility.
Key principles
Having covered the three dimensions, let’s look at the key guiding principles of inclusive design. There are many different interpretations of these key principles with new ones being added to the list all the time. However, the main ones worth focusing on are:
- Equitable use: Making design accessible to individuals with diverse abilities. This means equalling the playing field so that all individuals have fair access, irrespective of their abilities and resources. This has highly beneficial results because it can empower many individuals to better engage and interact with the world around them.
- Flexibility in use: Accommodating individual preferences and abilities. What is meant by this is that inclusive design offers flexibility through options. While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to design, and since every person engages with the world differently, the ability to choose how one interacts with a product or service can make a world of difference.
- Simple and intuitive design: Ensuring ease of use for all users is paramount. This necessarily involves careful consideration of design so much so that it does not discriminate based on one’s experience, language skills, cognitive abilities, or other differentiating characteristics. In short, this also means creating clear instructions that make sense to all users.
- Perceptible information: This key principle relates to presenting information clearly for users with different sensory abilities. As such, it’s important to offer multiple formats that cater to people with auditory or visual impairments, and others.
- Tolerance for error: Although errors are part of human nature, no one wants to interact with a product or service that frustrates them when an error arises. This is why minimizing the impact of mistakes and providing corrective measures in an easy to understand or navigate manner is so important. A simple example could be an easily accessible undo button, which can help a user continue using the product or service.
- Low physical effort: Designers should also design for minimal physical effort in order to benefit users with physical disabilities such as mobility impairments. Examples of this could be sensors for hand washing instead of taps or levers.
- Size and space considerations: Providing adequate space for users of varying body sizes and mobility aids.
Overall, it is essential to provide users with a comparable experience given the situation in question. It is also important to be consistent in your offering while empowering users with control and choice over their interactions with your design.
Applications of Inclusive Design
Since design is such a broad field, it’s a good idea to share just a few examples of how and where inclusive design can be applied.
- Websites: To increase text legibility, offer different font sizes or even dark mode for older users. Even if this means deviating slightly from the visual part of your brand’s strategy, the consideration and effort will be appreciated by your audience.
- Forms: Make sure your forms are user-friendly for global audiences. For example, surname inputs with circumflexes or umlauts can be challenging to accept. So can limited choices for gender orientation.
- Visual guides and illustrations: Whether you’re creating a magazine, a brochure, or a booklet, be sure to take into account diversity by illustrating different skin tones so that people can recognize themselves in your images and not feel excluded.
- Hiring processes: In the complex hiring process, be sure to offer a range of options and even an option to add further options you may not have thought of. This gives job applicants greater control and choice in their application process. In addition, for your current employees, you may wish to consider offering flexible work schedules so that team members can attend private medical appointments without concern.
- Radio: Whether you have a podcast or you run a radio show, be sure to add auto captions for users who may have permanent or temporary auditory impairments.
- The built environment: Within office spaces or institutional buildings, be sure to offer levered door handles, lower shelves, adjustable lighting, tactile pavements, and other factors that can make ease of use more accessible for all.
Want more tips, tricks, design hacks & advice? Check this out: 200+ Handpicked Resources
Benefits of Incorporating Inclusive Design
As mentioned earlier, incorporating inclusive design comes with a whole range of benefits. Among these include the following:
- Enhanced user experience for a broader range of users
- Fosters a sense of belonging
- Increased market reach by catering to a wider audience
- Greater competitive advantage for businesses
- Compliance with legal and ethical obligations related to accessibility
- Fosters a greater sense of social responsibility
- Makes a positive impact on society
- Positive brand reputation and image
- Greater customer loyalty through inclusivity
- Sparks product and/or service innovation and creativity
- Increases business opportunities by reaching out to untapped markets
- Expands business reach and builds trust with customers
- Enhances customer satisfaction
- Boosts business profitability and adds a competitive advantage to businesses
- Can help improve search engine rankings
- It is the right thing to do
Universal vs Inclusive Design: Key differences
The world of inclusive design has many nuances and subdomains. One often made assumption in this space is that inclusive design is the same as universal design. However, that is far from the case.
While universal design does aim at some form of inclusion, it looks at the ways in which an experience can be accessed and used to the greatest possible extent by the greatest number of people. In a sense, it is quite a uniform solution because it focuses on one design solution without options for adaptations or specialized design.
Inclusive design, on the other hand, embraces different design variations. Another difference is where they are applied. For example, universal design is often found and applied in physical or tangible environmental contexts limited by space. Meanwhile, inclusive design is typically found in digital products as it is much easier and cost-effective to adapt these kinds of interfaces.
Accessible vs Inclusive Design: Key Differences
Another frequent misconception is that accessible design and inclusive design are the same. From the outset, it’s important to identify that accessibility is a narrower part of the broader inclusive design concept. It looks at ensuring that people with disabilities are able to use websites, interfaces, tools, and technologies.
Examples of such disabilities could include auditory, cognitive, visual, and physical. The ultimate goal of accessibility is to ensure that different groups with disabilities are accommodated. However, it is narrow in focus and is considered the bare minimum for meaningful experiences.
Best Practices in Inclusive Design
With all this being said, it’s clear that inclusive design is essential in our modern world. But where do we start with it? What practices and processes should be included to have positive outcomes for as many people as possible? The answer is that there is no simple or clear cut solution. There will be various different ways in which inclusive design will be implemented, depending on the use case. However, a few best practices worth following broadly speaking include the following:
- Recognize exclusion: Start by acknowledging that technology can and does exclude certain people. By being mindful, designers can be more empathetic in their approach and create more meaningful experiences.
- Uncover unconscious bias: Being clear that exclusion is a part of certain processes, it’s time to focus on introspection and checking one’s assumptions during the design journey. These can be ingrained but unintentional and contribute to hindering a sound inclusive design process.
- Research and learn from diverse audiences: It’s not just about consulting with, surveying, or conducting usability tests with different diverse groups. It’s also about learning from them. To create a genuinely inclusive, empowering, and welcoming experience, designers need to know what pain points to address. This can only happen when they actually have access to their audiences, as well as their preferences, pain points and their unique requirements.
- Understand exclusion: Understanding the ways in which exclusion manifests itself means stepping into the shoes of others and trying to get a grasp on their real lived experiences and how to overcome these challenges. Often, it’s about opening oneself up to better understand people from different backgrounds, abilities, and experiences.
- Identify your users’ needs: Once there is a sound understanding of exclusion, it’s time to figure out ways in which to address it. Designers should focus on creating a path to creating products or services that are more inclusive. For this reason, prioritizing accessibility or accessible design should be paramount.
- Design for flexibility: Another key best practice is to create flexible and customizable interfaces that enable your audience or users to change and adapt the products to their needs, whether these are visual, auditory, or mobility needs.
- Test and iterate: Testing is an important part of any design process. But to take it one step further, designers should consider using both automated tools and manual testing, which involves people with disabilities or impairments. It’s essential to take their feedback and use it as a AI feedback loop to constantly improve the product.
Conclusion
In summary, the importance of inclusive design cannot be overstated. No matter how small you think your changes are, you never know what kind of impact they will have on people with different lived experiences or disabilities.
It’s time for the industry to embrace inclusive design principles and create accessible and user-friendly products. There are many positive outcomes of incorporating inclusive design in product development that will not only benefit your users in the end but your business as a whole.