{"id":12756,"date":"2021-03-15T16:24:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T20:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/?p=12756"},"modified":"2021-05-31T15:17:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:17:51","slug":"inclusive-design-for-digital-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/inclusive-design-for-digital-experiences","title":{"rendered":"Inclusive Design for Digital Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Designing Inclusive Digital Experiences<\/strong> \u2013 the latest in <a href=\"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/events\/online\">BrainStation\u2019s Digital Leadership Event Series<\/a> \u2013 took place on March 11, and featured four inclusive design and user experience experts from Headspace, Capital One, and Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can watch the full panel discussion here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/522939888\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inclusivity is fundamental to making digital experiences and products accessible to the largest possible group of users. It plays out in all the ways users interact with digital products \u2013 which means technology is a key factor in making a user journey successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, as technology improves and the interface between user and product becomes ever more seamless, the definition of inclusivity is growing to encompass not just a product\u2019s functionality for all users, but also its ability to satisfy all users at an emotional level \u2013 an ambition that comprises an even wider range of considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our panel lineup included four people working at the forefront of designing inclusive digital experiences \u2013 from Google and Google Assistant, meditation app Headspace, and banking company Capital One. Together, they shared their insights on how the umbrella of inclusivity is expanding, the centrality of the user and their journey to the design process, and how to successfully build more inclusivity into digital experiences. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Inclusivity Is More Than Accessibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ensuring that digital products are physically accessible to nearly all users is increasingly seen as the bare minimum. Features like closed captioning for the hearing impaired, descriptive text for the visually impaired, and multiple ways of navigating for people with impaired motor skills not only mean that more users can access the product \u2013 they also send a powerful message about the importance of inclusivity to all users. While not feasible in every circumstance, universal accessibility can now be considered a baseline, at least in terms of ambition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As <strong>Eunjoo Kim<\/strong>, UX Design Lead at Google Assistant, explains, \u201cIf you don\u2019t apply inclusive design in your products, or in emerging technologies which have physical interactions, your design is not just bad, but is unusable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inclusivity, in other words, is not an add-on; it\u2019s a core design principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But inclusivity doesn\u2019t end with a user\u2019s ability to physically use the technology; it also speaks to multiple social dimensions, including language and nationality, race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, and socioeconomic status, as well as more fine-grained distinctions like one\u2019s level of educational, financial situation or geographical location \u2013 even the way ideas like \u201cfamily\u201d means different things to different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As <strong>J.R. Miller<\/strong>, UX Writer and Product Designer at Google, says, \u201cThey need not all be lumped together like that. And indeed, it\u2019s impossible to lump them all together.\u201d There\u2019s no one-size-fits-all template for making a product inclusive to everyone; each of these considerations must be weighed individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>Klaus Heesch<\/strong>, Director of Experience Design at banking group Capital One, inclusivity takes on a financial dimension, and includes topics like \u201cthe democratization of trading, for example, and access to the trading markets, which used to be just for wealthy white Wall Streeters,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Input Determines Output<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Heesch, summarizing a lesson from Antionette Carroll of Creative Reaction Lab, advises \u201cDesign <em>with<\/em> your customers, not <em>for<\/em> your customers.\u201d But while letting your users shape your inclusivity design process can yield crucial insights, this advice comes with a caveat. To combat bias, input must be as inclusive as possible at every stage, from hiring to research and user testing to, finally, the data generated by end users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to hiring, explains <strong>Frank Bach<\/strong>, Lead Product Designer at Headspace, inclusivity leads to better products. \u201cIf you can make [your design teams] as inclusive as possible \u2013 hearing from as many different people as you can, from different backgrounds, different life journeys, different languages, making sure that there\u2019s not a lot of sameness in the types of people that you\u2019re inviting to these groups \u2013 then you should have better outcomes. Not just business outcomes, but [also along] the more human metrics of, are people enjoying this product? Do they feel like it understands them? Do they feel some type of connection and community to the service or product that you\u2019re building?\u201d Today\u2019s work-from-home climate has made achieving diversity in hiring much easier, Bach says, especially when it comes to hiring people whose experience includes a different set of circumstances than are found in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Diversity is just as crucial to inclusivity at the research and testing stage, Kim says. \u201cWhen we say \u2018machine learning,\u2019 sometimes you\u2019d think it\u2019s a magic box \u2013 it will magically happen. Well, it\u2019s not true. The machine starts based on data that\u2019s input from humans. Then the machine builds a solution \u2013 an output which inherits human bias\u2026.If you don\u2019t have inclusive input, you won\u2019t have inclusive output.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor user research and testing,\u201d Kim says, \u201crecruiting a diverse set of participants is important. We try to include people with different accents and different family types.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller agrees. \u201cThe most important tool we\u2019ve been using, especially on my team, is listening: listening to users, listening to each other, and listening deeply before we even make a design decision that will impact inclusivity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUsers are the designers,\u201d Kim explains. \u201cThey are content creators, they are content reviewers, and they are product sellers,\u201d she says. \u201cSo users are a part of this ecosystem.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Fight For The User<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This emphasis on being responsive to all users is at the heart of designing inclusivity; the UX Designer\u2019s mandate is, in a sense, to fight for the user. In any product design, there are always competing interests, but as Bach explains, championing the user is a priority from both a user case and a business case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not singling out that this is a product experience for this type of person or that type of person,\u201d Bach says. \u201cAnd on the product side or the user experience side, we\u2019re making sure that when we\u2019re setting things up \u2013 for example, our design system components \u2013 we\u2019re working on buttons, states, or typography to make sure that we\u2019re covering our bases for things like proper color contrasts, or using haptic feedback in a way that is meaningful for people\u2026.And as a designer, I think I\u2019m getting smarter at building the business case for getting these things done. You know what is the right thing to do, but in a company of a few hundred people, it can sometimes be a challenge to fight for the user and only the user.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller agrees, emphasizing that keeping the user foremost in mind isn\u2019t just about design \u2013 it\u2019s also about content. \u201cYou have to think about the user, and speak like the user, and write in ways so that as many users as possible will understand you, as well as your product.\u201d In fact, Miller emphasizes, voice is one of the most meaningful ways to build inclusivity; the wrong language can leave people feeling excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Inclusivity Is About a Sense of Belonging<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, building that sense of belonging is the overarching goal of inclusivity measures. Usability and accessibility both signal to a user that a product was made for them, but inclusivity goes beyond user interface; language and content are also important. \u201cWhen a user feels \u2018It\u2019s made for me, made for my family, made for my gender, made for my country,\u2019 it just creates emotional satisfaction,\u201d Kim says. \u201cTo me, design is not just a matter of usability or utility, but of feeling and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Miller, this begins with the word. \u201c[It\u2019s] important to think about language and voice and tone as a part of the design system of the product.\u201d Miller warns against the use of idioms, which not only don\u2019t translate well, but are also interpreted differently even between cultures that speak the same language: \u201cEspecially when you\u2019re building a global product, you need to make sure that you\u2019re writing language that can be understood by a global audience\u2026.And you want to make sure you\u2019re writing at no more than an eighth grade reading level. I know it\u2019s a hard thing to measure, but there are tools online that can help you figure that out\u2026.You don\u2019t get any brownie points for sounding smart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like all UX design, inclusive design ultimately comes down to empathy \u2013 taking care to speak like the user. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While personas have long been used to develop empathy, Heesch sees the way they define and limit understanding of the user as detrimental to building belonging, and predicts personas are on their way out. \u201c[Our understanding of audience is] moving away from simplistic or generic personas,\u201d Heesch says. \u201cThat idea that everyone\u2019s going to fit into some sort of average is not appropriate, and it\u2019s not inclusive, and it leaves a lot of people, in fact, excluded. Historically, a lot of designers have worked around the idea of a persona\u2026.The problem with that is, every individual isn\u2019t locked into one mode, and doesn\u2019t fit into one standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In place of personas, Heesch looks to archetypes, which emphasize not the supposedly universal characteristics of a certain type of person, but rather where a given person is on their own personal path. \u201cWe have to understand that anyone, in any group, travels through their own journey, and our hurdles and the challenges that we face are many and different. Our experiences, socio-economic backgrounds, education, and many more factors shape our attitudes and our views,\u201d he says. \u201cWe as designers have to take that into consideration\u2026.Our obligation as designers is to realize that we\u2019re designing for the long haul, and these experiences that we\u2019re making should evolve and adapt to our users\u2019 place in life, meeting them where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Interested in learning more? <a href=\"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/book-call\">Book a call<\/a> with one of BrainStation&#8217;s Learning Advisors.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out BrainStation&#8217;s latest Digital Leadership Event Series panel about inclusive design in digital experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":12757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[595,160,157],"tags":[111,920,119,546],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Inclusive Design for Digital Experiences | BrainStation\u00ae Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out the recap of Designing Inclusive Digital Experiences, the latest panel in BrainStation&#039;s Digital Leadership Series on inclusive design.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/brainstation.io\/blog\/inclusive-design-for-digital-experiences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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