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Discipline

Inclusive design

Designs products and services that the widest possible range of people can use, learning from those excluded by ability, age, language or situation.

In Spanish
Diseño inclusivo
Origin
Clarkson, Coleman et al. (2003); Holmes (2018), based on the work of Microsoft Design

What it deals with

What is designed for an average person leaves many others out, and anyone can have a temporary or situational limitation.

Principles

  • Recognize exclusion

    Disability is a mismatch between the person and their environment: you change the environment.

  • Learn from diversity

    Include those most often left out and see how they get by.

  • Solve for one, extend to many

    What is designed for a permanent disability also helps people with a temporary or situational limitation.

Applications in design

  • Use it like this

    Include people who are usually left out in your research, from the start.

  • Avoid

    Leaving accessibility until the end as a checklist.

  • Don’t fall for it

    Also think of temporary or situational limitations: a busy hand, bright light, noise.

Especialidades

Specialty

Accessible design

Designs so that people with disabilities can perceive, use and understand a product.

Specialty

Design for children

Designs products and services used by children and teenagers, with their age in mind and often with them.

Models

  • ModelWCAG guidelinesThe reference standard so that people with different disabilities can use a website or app.
  • ModelUniversal designSeven principles for designing products and spaces almost anyone can use, without adapting them.

Methods and tools

  • ApproachDesign justiceDesigning with the communities most affected, to share what design gives and takes more fairly.
  • MethodExtremes and mainstreamsAlso talking to people at the extremes to see needs the average hides.
  • MethodAccessibility auditReviewing a site or app against accessibility guidelines to find what excludes someone.
  • ApproachPrivacy by designProtecting personal data from the first sketch, with the most private option already set.

Connections

Builds on

Related to

Authors and works

  1. 2003

    John Clarkson, Simeon Keates, Roger Coleman and Cherie Lebbon

    Brought together, in one book, inclusive design understood as design for the whole population.

  2. 2018

    Kat Holmes

    Described exclusion as a mismatch between the person and what is designed; with the Microsoft team she set out three practical principles.

Sources

Original sources

  • Clarkson, J., Keates, S., Coleman, R., & Lebbon, C. (Eds.) (2003). Inclusive design: Design for the whole population. Springer.
  • Holmes, K. (2018). Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design. MIT Press.

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