Universal Design in UX Research
“Before you Research about someone or something you need to understand YOU”.
YOU or US is an identity that influences our Perspectives
“YOU” decides your ground
“YOU” gives you the lens
“YOU” gives you a perspective
“YOU” decides your ability to observe, infer and synthesize
With a Biased and chaotic YOU, a research cannot be about SOMEONE or something. Be it UX Research or any type of research
Before Going to Research on something, making YOU clear is important. You might be thinking, what it has to do with Universal Design and UX Research.
Patience!! Patience is the medicine for a Researcher which treats the disease of “Drawing Hasty conclusions”
Universal Design is a democratic design thinking philosophy which helps people to design Environments, eco-systems, systems, services and products which are accessible to everyone with diverse abilities, disabilities and for diverse scenarios, balancing the Inclusion and exclusion of Diversity based on the problem that one is trying to solve for.
Disclaimer: This is purely based on my personal experience and how I look at Research and Universal Design.
We can actually apply Universal Design thinking while understanding Users. I don’t like people to call users, I would choose to call Humans.
I would give the application framework of Universal Design application in Research in steps.
1. Look Where you are — We as Humans have diverse abilities and disabilities based on our Karma(an accumulated memory with set of actions and reactions). If we are able to crack the diversity within us, we will be able to crack the diversity without, in terms of understanding other humans. This basically means to evaluate What are our abilities to understand other humans in a right way? and what are our disabilities to understand other humans in a right way?
Example: If you want to Research about a security guard and his job, first you will have to check the diversity of abilities and disabilities which you have to understand the Security guard well. Abilities can be Skill of empathy, skill of Method acting, Skill of observation and on the other side, disabilities could be Memory loss, Lack of concentration, focus, shyness , fear of talking, to someone (in the context of Research).
2. Understand How to Include and How to Exclude — We make choices everyday and every single second 24*7, knowingly and unknowingly. We have a conscious choice to what all we need to INCLUDE in our mind, to look at a user or understand a user “Sorry! Human” and what to EXCLUDE while understanding or observing.
Example : Include objective point of views, Exclude Biases and Quicker Generalisations or Include Diversity, Exclude Limitations or Vice versa based on your Research Goal.
“Previous Knowledge or World view or Point of View which we have, should inform our First principles thinking but not influence it”
3. Open yourself to Everyone and Everything — “Universal Design teaches to draw boundaries which are open to expand” Tricky thing right?? but it is very important for a Researcher. A Researcher’s Logic is very limited, in fact a Human’s logical thinking is limited. So, everything cannot fit into our existential knowledge and logic, many things we realise can be beyond our conception and knowledge. So, keep your boundaries open and Ever expanding.
4. Collective Consciousness and its Roleplay — “Universal Design speaks about collective understanding of life and people” Inclusion needs courage and collective consciousness. If a Researcher, do not accept people as they are and do not try to expand the horizons of his/her consciousness, the results will be lopsided and limited. For long term understanding of a human(whom we call as User, customer or consumer) Having this collective consciousness is important.
5. Understand the Abilities well : Universal Design taught me to understand the Human’s Abilities and disabilities well in order to inform the Research process and estimate the diversity and depth of my lens. Human’s abilities and disabilities give us a clear understanding of difference between What a human did/does/doing, What a human can generally do and what a human can do when he/she/other is put in a situation, a scenario or a context.
6. Exercise Specificity in Generalisation : Words like Everyone and Everything are often misused and misinterpreted. Our Brain is a big Generaliser and it is easy for it to Generalise things. We Generalise things because, we want to convince ourselves and then others, which gives more strength for our thought process and self confidence. But Defining the Generalisation in Context and being specific about Scenarios will give a meaning to the Generalisation and make it sensible.
Example: 2 Fruit Vendors behaved Rudely with you when you have visited X Market on a Sunny day afternoon on Monday.
Can we say, Fruit Vendors in X Market are generally rude?
This is Generalisation.
Now, if we come back and look deeper, 2 fruit vendors are not given enough space by the local municipality authorities because of rush and traffic close to railway station on Mondays. Hence, the business is hit and they are in frustration at that point of time and that particular time and fairly because they are humans too.
So the sensible Generalisation could be
“Probably, Some Fruit vendors in X market can have trouble in handling customers because of some reasons, on Mondays” — This is still a Hypothesis which has to be verified.
“Generalisation should wear a dress of Hypothesis to check itself before it goes to the world as a Fact or truth”
Universal Design is not just a Design process, it is a research process too. It is a great philosophy which helps us to shape ourselves as good Humans who can be good Researchers. Most importantly, Universal Design can give a better understanding of “YOU” which sets a right base for Research and best understanding of a Human in the form of User/consumer/customer.
Vikash Konathala Naga Sai
UX Researcher at Jumbotail
Master of Design — Universal Design
National Institute of Design, Bengaluru
