Inclusive Design: A Toolkit
As organizations build products and services, they may have a blind spot to those outside their assumed customer group — which limits their full target market opportunity and leaves groups under-served.
An urban community can’t access affordable healthcare. Visually impaired people can’t engage with websites. Folx can’t find clothing that fits or makeup that matches their skin tone.
This is not only a source of inequity, it’s a limiting factor on the scale and impact of a solution.
Drawing from my career as an innovator with a focus on equity and inclusion, I’ve created a toolkit full of actionable approaches from business model innovation to inclusive product testing — to ensure under-served groups aren’t left behind.
You can skip to the toolkit by clicking here: Inclusion Toolkit
But perhaps you’d like to join me first to put the inclusion toolkit in context, calling upon the work of many valued colleagues and thought leaders who are driving this field.
What is Inclusive Design?
Before we dive into inclusive design, let’s talk about social identities.
We all hold multiple identities. For example: I am white, cisgender, educated, a woman, a US citizen, comfortable financially. Some identities bring privilege — education, for example, is a prerequisite for many jobs and also a marker of social status. In other identities you may be a minority — and your experience may be overlooked by the majority.
Take out a piece of paper and reflect for a moment on this question:
Which social identity are you most aware of?
Next, think about the products, services, and experiences in your life:
How well do you feel your identities are served by products and services?
Now that you’ve thought about those questions, you’re primed to talk about inclusive design.
When design is inclusive: It’s accessible, enjoyable, welcoming to people of all identities. There are no barriers to participation. This leads to widespread adoption and business success.
When design is not inclusive: People are ignored — and they aren’t able to participate in the experience that dominant identities enjoy. A ballerina has to paint her ballet shoes to match her skin tone. A person in a wheelchair can’t get to the spot with the view. An expecting mother, unable to access prenatal care in her low-income community, has to take a bus across town. An investor can’t find a financial advisor that understands the importance of real estate to his Latino community. A tall woman can’t find jeans that fit. A job seeker can’t find the right gender identity options on their application. These impacts add up. And we can prevent them.
The Business Case for Inclusion
The social case for inclusion is quite clear if you value equity and social justice. While the business case may be less obvious, it’s also quite compelling.
Let’s start with a snapshot of US demographics—which show important changes over time. (Apologies for omitting international data).
These demographic shifts amplify a strong business case for products and services that meet the needs of under-served groups. Inclusion provides remarkable scale, engagement, and innovation.
Scale
Underserved groups form large, powerful, and often untapped markets. By including these growing segments — and designing scalable solutions — companies can increase their customer base to drive revenue.
Engagement
When people feel included, they will engage more deeply with it. They really care! Why is this?
- Inclusion builds trust. When you feel seen, you’ll feel a connection.
- It’s relevant. A product tailored to your needs is, of course, compelling. It’s more exciting than something generic, and so much better than something tailored to somebody else’s needs.
- It’s inviting. Representative imagery helps people imagine themselves using a product.
- It’s accessible. Accessibility is a make-or-break for customers who have disabilities or other special circumstances — both literally and emotionally. As Kat Holmes says in her book, Mismatch, “Engagement with a product increases when it’s easier to use… An inclusive environment is far more than the shape of its doors, chairs, and rampways. It also considers the psychological and emotional impacts on people.” ¹⁰
Innovation
Diverse teams are proven to be more innovative, with stronger results. A Harvard Business review article cites a study of 366 public companies which found that “Those in the top 25% for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean.” ¹¹
The Inclusion Toolkit
So let’s get into it! How can we create inclusive offerings? The inclusion toolkit includes a set of approaches—each with a description, tips and resources, inspirational examples, and questions to keep in mind as you go forward.
The six sections of the toolkit are: Target Market Definition, Representation, Business Models, Accessibility, Tech Innovation, and Systems Thinking. Read on to see why each is included, then pop over to the toolkit for the good stuff.
Target Market Definition.
Defining a target market helps you focus your strategy, design with the customer’s needs in mind, and market your product in a way that will reach your intended audience. It’s a key part of product development, both in early MVP stages and for mature offerings. But without a thoughtfully-defined target market, companies may overlook the perspectives of those outside the dominant majority — who may not have the same needs.
Representation.
It’s not enough to intend to include a group. To be inclusive, you need to think deeply about representation. People trust a product/service when they feel an affinity with people involved — the service providers, the other customers, the influencers, the happy faces on a marketing campaign. The field of social psychology helps us understand why:
- In-group and out-group dynamics. People tend to have preference for members of their “in-group” — that is, people who share culture, behavior, and other characteristics — while they feel uncomfortable as part of an “out-group.” By building connections with communities (including digital communities, neighborhoods, social groups) you can build a sense of belonging — inviting them as part of the in-group. “If you can get a few members of a community to join a bank, you’ll have pretty rapid growth, even with historical bias.” — Ernan Haruvy, Director of the Marketing Institute at McGill University
- Mere-exposure effect. People develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. “Trust and familiarity are really similar in the brain. Familiarity needs to run through every channel. If I see you enough, I’m going to start to like you.” — Paul Zak, Neuroeconomist and author of Trust Factor.¹² To build familiarity takes connection and time — but a good shortcut is to connect to people that are relatable and familiar.
Business Model Innovation.
If we want to include folks, we need to make sure that they can access and afford what we’re providing. Which means that distribution and business models provide powerful levers for inclusion.
Accessibility.
With an accessibility focus, we deliberately design for people with a diverse range of abilities and disabilities — including people with visual impairments, cognitive disabilities, and dexterity challenges. There are many robust tools and standards we can lean on to guide accessibility, removing literal blockers to participation.
Tech Innovation.
What do you do when the technology itself is biased? If algorithms are trained on data that perpetuates stereotypes, or cameras can’t optimize for all skin tones, then the product is broken from the inside. Our work can be to correct these problems, or to avoid them in the first place.
Systems thinking.
The world is a mess. We experience inequities which have developed through generations of bias (racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and other bigotry) — resulting in poverty and injustice. Our earth is affected by pollution, climate change, and loss of biodiversity — much of which is irreversible. While there are no easy solutions, systems thinking allows us to zoom out to find the bright spots and the levers for change.
Let’s go—
Please enjoy using this toolkit. And report back—I’d love to hear how you used it and what impact you’ve created!
With Gratitude
Key Resources
- Mismatch, by Kat Holmes. “How inclusion shapes design” — with a focus on inclusivity for all physical and cognitive abilities.
- Building for Everyone, by Annie Jean-Baptiste. How businesses can create inclusive products — including alignment, KPIs, testing, marketing.
- Design for Belonging, by Susie Wise. How to build not just inclusion but a sense of belonging in communities and organizations — using levers of design such as space, roles, events, rituals, communications. (Builds on work Susie and I did together in education equity.)
- Equity Army. A fellowship of people committed to equity and inclusion.
Thanks to my colleagues over the years.
- Dr. Joseph Brown, Stanford — who introduced me to the Social Identity Walk.
- From the Equity Army — Annie Jean-Baptiste, who created the fellowship; Krissi Boakye, Rochelle Cherenfant, Deana Jirak, Njoki Kamau, and Irina Rusakova, who provided feedback on the toolkit.
- Aspen First Movers fellows — especially Paloma Lopez, Caroline Barlerin, Alice Ponti, Rahul Raj, and Renata Frolover-Hammer who provided feedback on the toolkit.
- My team at Fidelity — especially Ben Little, Ren Smith, Scott Slagsvol.
Footnotes
- Modified from the Social Identity Walk exercise, which I practiced with Dr. Joseph Brown at Stanford
- Brookings: 2020 Census Results
- Fidelity internal research
- Time: Gender Identity
- PRB: Aging Population
- Brookings: Education Gender Gaps
- NCES: College Enrollment Rates
- Pew: Americans with Disabilities
- Building For Everyone, by Annie Jean-Baptiste
- Mismatch, by Kat Holmes
- Harvard Business Review: Why diverse teams are smarter
- Trust Factor, by Paul Zak
