Tackling Digital Inclusivity, One Bite at a Time
In this article, Lee Jeffery explores the topic of Inclusive Design and reflects on the recent Figma Coffee Morning in Manchester. He shares a workshop activity that will enable your team to identify and prioritise areas of focus.
Last week, I had the pleasure of joining a panel session at the first ‘Figma Coffee Morning’ in Manchester. In typical Manchester fashion, the rain poured down, but it didn’t stop people from braving the weather to come and connect around the topic of Digital Inclusion.
The event was hosted by Code at WPP Campus, which has become famous for its giant event screens and incredible design artwork by designer Toby Burkill. We certainly looked the part.
Knocking Down Barriers
At Sage, our core purpose is to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion priorities promote building diverse teams, creating an inclusive culture, and delivering equity by design.
Key Takeaways
I was joined on the panel by Tahira Resalat from Kooth Digital Health and Ask Kay from Bupa. We explored several discussion topics facilitated by James Norris from Figma and then opened up to Q&A.
On reflection, I took away some key points that were raised throughout the conversation:
- Culture is key: build diverse teams, instil empathy, and share lived experiences.
- Build communities and empower people to connect.
- Diverse teams lead to more innovative and inclusive solutions.
- Being inclusive is not only morally right, but it also has commercial benefits by enabling more people to access your services and discover unmet needs.
- Design Systems can aid accessibility. Build them right, save tech debt, and drive consistency across your services.
- Showcase success to inspire inclusivity, supported by user research.
- Drive the importance and focus on digital inclusion from the top down.
- Everyone is accountable; through the different touchpoints and lifecycle of delivery, you all have your part to play. Watch out for breaks in the chain.
- Content is crucial. Scale content practice and collaborate.
- Use metrics to gain support, focusing on unmet opportunities and cost reduction for profit. Refer to the Google Heart Framework and CSAT to quantify efficiency.
- Who are you willing to exclude? It’s not an add-on or afterthought; it’s embedded from the start.
Great Conversation, What Next?
As we closed the session, James asked the panel for their one piece of advice on where to start. Tough question, right?
On reflection, it got me thinking. We’d touched on a lot of key areas and shared many examples of things to try or areas to tackle. I felt like I needed to be a bit more helpful.
The problem is we’re all at different stages of our journey. How do we focus on our own goals, which are ambitious but achievable? It got me thinking… what if tackling inclusivity was like making a sandwich? Okay, stay with me…
- The filling: What is at the core of the sandwich? Where do you want to apply most of your effort?
- The toppings: What other things can you try to help build out your sandwich and make it appetising?
- The secret sauce: What is the one thing you can do to ensure people eat the whole sandwich? How do you make an impact and showcase success?
The Recipe for Success
One of the best ways to gain a shared understanding and collaborate is to run a workshop. I’ve created a new Miro workshop template called ‘The Inclusivity Sandwich,’ which you can run with your teams to help understand what’s important and how you can prioritise, making incremental changes to showcase impact.
Download ‘The Inclusivity Sandwich’ template from The Miroverse.
How to Get Started
- Activity 1 - Start by understanding what inclusive design is and share good and bad examples within companies and digital experiences. Then discuss your inclusivity rating, where do you think you are on your journey? Be open and honest. How can everyone take steps to improve?
- Activity 2 - Now get people to build their sandwich. What filling, toppings, and secret sauce will you use? Maybe you’ll keep it lightweight and take a steady approach. Maybe you have more resources and want to pack your sandwich full of ideas.
- Activity 3 - Now we have our sandwiches; it’s time to review. Which will make the menu? In turn, talk through your sandwich and share why these ingredients are important to you and give your perspective. Then cast your votes and declare a winner.
- Wrap Up - Now you have some areas of focus. It’s time to decide on next steps. Assign some tasks to the team and start your journey to being more inclusive.
Over to You
Why not run this activity with your product and design teams? Create your selection of sandwiches and agree on which feels like the best fit for your appetite.
Feel free to adapt the board and add more ingredients; tailor it to your company.
Think about what is morally right, the benefits commercially, and ensure you’re adhering to legal requirements.
Set yourself some goals, measure your impact, and showcase the difference you are making.
Let me know if you try it out. If the sandwich doesn’t taste so good, that’s okay, make a new one and try again.
