Inclusive Design Principles
In my previous article, we discussed at length what inclusive designs were, differences between accessibility, usability and inclusive design.
Incase you haven’t read it yet, Do so here -
If you did, here’s a little reminder anyway
Inclusive design products are accessible to as many users as possible without requiring disabled persons to buy a special model. Some examples include smartphones, automatic doors, large-grip kitchen utensils, e-readers with adjustable print sizes, and everyday voice assistants.
And just as everything in life general has principles and guidelines, Inclusive design also has a series of principles.
And much like universal design’s (which is more like end product) seven point list developed in 1997, inclusive design ( an ongoing process ) also has principles
These principles are my opinion based off resources already available online and in no particular order.
1. Recognize exclusion
When trying to come up with new ideas and create solutions, be sure to proactively and intentionally search for the excluded, understand how and why they have been underrepresented. Probably due to our personal biases or mismatch between people and experiences.
A great way of doing this is by getting user feedback from them - The partially blind’s experience with video quality, the photosensitive epileptic with flashy image warnings, the Hard-of-hearing in using video or audio educational resources, the ADHD or other sensory or neurological related disorders with website timeouts for security purposes.
Like it was mentioned in the previous article, instead of thinking only some people are disabled and some aren’t, think that we are all temporarily abled.
Its imperative to understand that at some point in our daily lives we have all been disabled. For example, an arm amputee trying to pull or push a heavy door, a man carrying a tray of hot coffee cups in one hand or a woman carrying a fussy toddler in one hand.
These three users will react to the heavy door similarly, even though only one person is considered truly “disabled”. And so disability is classified; as permanent, temporary and situational.
So when next you’re to think accessibility, think about users’ situations and scenarios that may affect the usage or usability of said product.
That takes us to our next point -
2. Identify situational challenges
Now we know that exclusion occurs in more situational categories than (dis) ability itself. We need to consider context and environment in which a user interacts with said design. Taking account of the experiences — good and bad in daily moments of exclusion and frustrations of the user, will help give an actual assessment in these daily moments of exclusion.
And in those assessments we may realize that ability-based needs and temporary disabilities will often give rise to designs solutions that benefit more than the categories mentioned above.
For example, close captioned videos have helped us all even though we do not suffer hearing loss or Hard-of-hearing. Sometimes, you’re just finding it hard to keep up with the accent of a native speaker of any language. Captions have been an absolute blessing!.
3. Easy on those stats
Researching your users is one of the best ways to coming up with great designs, that actually solves their problems. Well, how can you solve a problem if you don’t know what it is right?.
There are a ton of ways that you can get to know your users, depending on your field of practice. Some of them, we already know so well, because we have been a part of. We’ve all seen pop ups when trying to leave an app or website to take a quick survey on your experience.
Another way is by using pre existing research data, by a previous team in your work place or available online, it would be a waste of time trying to convince people to take surveys, when there is ready-made data.
There are also Interviews, Field tests, Customer calls, Usability testing and much more. However, while trying to come up with accessible and inclusive designs, we hold on too closely to these statistics and numbers, but we must always remember that at the end of the day, inclusive design is more subjective than objective.
Its always a good idea to zoom out of that survey list you have been looking at and think of users as real people — one trying to get on the train in a metropolitan city, another busy person trying to get coffee all the way across the street in their short ten minutes break of a thirteen hour shift.
Zoom out and think in context, rather that focusing on only one statement or one pain point. That way we can recognize the diversity of users.
And that leads to the point on our list
4. Diversity and personal biases
Always Involve users from all over the world throughout the design process. Not only will users show their pain points, they will help us look beyond our personal biases when designing. Their fresh, diverse perspectives are the key to true insight.
In some cases, the underrepresented communities already have a solution idea to the problem and how they would want it done, it makes the job 10x easier!.
So you don’t try to validate an hypothesis you have, even if you’re so sure of yourself, always be open to other opinions. Two minds are better than one so it can only get better right?.
Involving user community through every process will also save you from stereotypes, that for example all boys above the age of twelve love video games or that men can’t recognize undertones of perfumes or that deaf and or dumb people can’t speak or learn more than one language.
4. Same content, different ways and equivalent experiences
A great practice of zooming out is by offering your interface in different situations. We all have different options, and it is often said that our differences are our greatest strength as humans.
When presented with options, two users decisions will likely decide differ, their user flows as a result will be dissimilar, because they can choose the method that best serves them in their unique circumstances.
In that way, we can really dive into the user’s mindset and understanding of the product, as to why they chose what they did and the problems they faced as a result, the goals they are trying to achieve and really empathize with them.
Make sure your interface delivers a valuable experience to people regardless of their circumstances.
However, always ensure that even when designing different way for users to interact with, the experiences are very comparable ( equivalent ) because whether out of circumstance, choice, or context people are diverse and use different approaches to operate interfaces, so what the interface offers each user should be comparable in value, quality, and efficiency.
For example — A comparable experience of notification for blind users, can be achieved by using a live region. The notification then requires no explicit action on the part of the user.
“Ensure your interface provides a comparable experience for all so people can accomplish tasks in a way that suits their needs without undermining the quality of the content.” — Inclusive design principles: provide a comparable experience
5. Consistency and Control
In a bid to be accessible, we must not steer away from important things like editorial and page architecture. Always use familiar conventions and apply them consistently.
Use consistent web and platform design patterns as this really helps build familiarity and understanding.
Also remember navigation for screen readers, so use consistent page architecture across templates to help scan and navigate key content. Keeping editorial style consistent is also equally important, such as making sure the top of articles always have a clearly marked summary paragraph, or making sure bullets always start with a bolded definition because editorial are relied on by screen reader users such as text alternatives, headings and labels for buttons.
There is no need for five to ten different button styles now, is there?
While all the above are important, ensure users are still in control. Again, people should be able to access and interact with content in their preferred way.
There are some controls they would love to decide on their own so do not suppress the ability to change standard browser and platform settings. Things like zooming in and out with pinch gesture or double tap.
‘Infinite scrolling’ can also be quite problematic, especially for users navigating by keyboard because then they can’t get past the stream of refreshing content. Enable the option to replace it with a ‘load more’ button.
6. Add value
Consider the value of features and how they improve the experience for different users. Features should add value to the user experience by providing efficient and diverse ways to interact with content. Features like geolocation API which helps people with mobility impairment and vibration API’s which is more usable for people hard-of-hearing.
And of course the feature that a chronic over-thinker like me always finds exciting is the “Show password” button, so users can verify that they have inputted the correct password instead of having to clear and re input slowly. Is it just me?.
These values lead us to our final point -
7. Solve for one and Extend the solution to everyone
As explained in the previous article, designing for one user group can benefit a much broader audience.
Everyone has abilities and limits. Creating products for people with permanent disabilities creates results that benefit everyone.
And that brings us to the end folks.
Conclusion -
“Inclusion is about creating a better world for everyone.” — Diane Richler, Former President of Inclusion International
Resources —
