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Let's Close the User Gap with Inclusive Design.

Updated: Feb 7, 2023




Good design has always centred around meeting user needs and creating designs that demonstrate a good understanding of their own purpose. This has traditionally been accomplished by involving users at the start of the design process to inform strategy, direction and output and then creating products that are usable and accessible by the widest possible audience.


Accessibility has gone from a ‘specialist’ discipline 20 years ago to a legal requirement today. There is also the morality of striving to create design solutions that can be experienced by as many people as possible regardless of vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity and cognition. Accessible design is now non-negotiable.



What is inclusive design?


Inclusive design takes the notion of accessible design and stretches it further to cover a wider, more amorphous range of topics, some of which may not be immediately obvious. Whilst accessible design does not discriminate against users with poor vision or hearing (for example), inclusive design does not discriminate against users of a particular culture, language, gender, age, health condition, location or technical maturity.


Determining whether a design is accessible or not is relatively straightforward: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) have helped shape accessible design since 2008, resulting in a series of unambiguous standards that define whether a digital product is accessible or not.


No such standards exist for inclusive design. Furthermore, because inclusive design covers a range of topics that are harder to assess, score or determine, it requires a much more skilled approach to the design and build of digital products. So if it can’t be easily defined or measured, what exactly is inclusive design?


In short, inclusive design aims to make all users – regardless of any aspect of their being – feel included.


“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”

- Verna Myers


Why is inclusive design important?


Around 1 billion people globally – or 15% of the world's population – have some form of disability[1], and the proportion is higher for developing countries:


“Persons with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes such as less education, poorer health outcomes, lower levels of employment, and higher poverty rates.”


So whilst accessible design tends to focus on solving for specific conditions (e.g. colour vision deficiency) that can easily be ‘checked off’ once catered for, inclusive design considers the wider gamut of a user’s situation and the effect it might have on their ability to obtain, understand and use digital products.


In addition to the obvious moral and ethical arguments of adopting an inclusive design approach, there are also brand benefits – shipping products that are the result of an inclusive design approach will elevate them above those of the competition who might have stopped at ‘just’ accessible design. Digital consumers appreciate – often subconsciously – when a design is considered and thoughtful. The opposite is just as true: users quickly become frustrated because something hasn’t been thought of or has been executed poorly.


Where do I start?


Inclusive design requires a deeper understanding of your user base and asks that you continually validate your thinking with them. In short, have you considered every user’s unique circumstances and designed accordingly?


For example, colours take on different meaning in different cultures. In the west, the colour red carries negative connotations (a warning, danger, an error) but in Japan and China red is seen as a positive colour, the colour of courage, success and fortune. In India, red is the colour of wealth and beauty. In Africa, red is the colour of mourning – which is why the Red Cross has changed its colours to green and white in parts of the continent.


The adage “you are not your user” is never truer than when considering inclusive design.


Inclusive design focuses much more around identifying all possible users and truly understanding situations where they may be excluded from or encumbered with a digital product or service. The aim should be to understand the barriers that exclude people and design to break them down.


This needs to start at the earliest possible phase of a project and be carried all the way through – you should always be going back and validating all assumptions will your users.



What are some inclusive design considerations?


There are many, and much will depend on what’s being created and for who, but adopting an inclusive design approach means considering a range of wide, amorphous topics:


  1. Understand the understanding Not everyone will have the same understanding of a product, service or content. For example, do you know the average reading age of your audience? The chances are it’ll surprise you. For example, the Literacy Trust report[2] 7.1 million people in the UK with an entry level reading age of 9.

  2. Have situation sympathy Not everyone will use the product in the same location, at the same time, in the same way or in the same context and your design should be sympathetic to this. A worried patient seated in a crowded hospital waiting room will have a different experience – and a different set of contextual needs – than someone sitting comfortably on their sofa with a laptop and a cup of tea in the privacy of their own home. Dig deeper still: we can’t assume all living situations are the same. Some of your users may live in a high occupancy dwelling where finding a quiet, private place to conduct a confidential video consultation is all but impossible. What then?

  3. Technology and adoption aren’t globally uniform Not everyone has access to the latest device, or the fastest cellular or internet network, or the brightest screen, or the latest digital health innovations. And the problem isn’t limited to the developing world; an estimated 20% of UK households struggle to afford data or broadband plans[3], and the scale of the problem continues to increase as many consider basic network connectivity as a luxury they can do without. Similarly, Ofcom report that 21% of adults in the UK access the internet solely through a smartphone[4] – be sure your designs cater for this and ensure cross-device usability.

  4. Think big, start small and test often Take the time to understand your users. Work out how you’ll identify who and where they are and allow them to directly influence planning, strategy and output. Talk to them often, and not just at the start – validate what you’re doing throughout, and don’t be afraid to change course if required.

Conclusion


People are hard creatures to design for: behaviour, understanding, cognition and technology can all conspire to erode the quality of an experience. But by taking an inclusive design approach, you’ll be able to create designs that exhibit a deeper understanding of what you’re doing and why. And this will result in better products for everyone – which is inclusive design in a nutshell.


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