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the 3 dimensions of
inclusive design

Recognize Diversity and Uniqueness

An image of an orange circle with 4 eyes and one arm holding hands with a old purple trapezoid with 4 arms and a feather in his hat holding the hands of a pink hexigon with feline ears and one eye. Everyone is different. When designing for literally everyone, rather than the mythical average, it is important to keep these difference in mind to prevent complications. While it is impossible to fully address every need it is possible to address many needs. To create solutions that keeps everyone’s best interests at heart the one-size-fits-all idea must be forgone for the one-size-fits-one ideal because one-size-fits-all works less and less as a person deviates from the mythical average this idea targets.


Usage of Inclusive Process and Tools

An image of a triangle, rectangle, hexagon and circle looking at a whiteboard discussing how to make the best possible doorway for a hexagon. The ideal team is a team that has a large variety of people with different views and skill sets. The benefits is that people with different opinions will challenge one another and polish the ideas; resulting in more comprehensive incident prediction and mitigation, and efficient models. This group of people should also include the target market of the product or service as contributors rather than just users. Inclusive tools mean tools that allow a multitude of different people to work. For example, usability testing, a technique used to determine the usability of a service through testing with a potential user. The users findings are then reported to the development team to create improvements.


Broader Beneficial Impact

A circle with no ears and a circle with ears but no earphones sit in a library enjoying the contents of their video without sound but with subtitles. By acknowledging that everything is interconnected, inclusive design aims to trigger a virtuous cycle of inclusion. Inclusive designers are responsible to strive towards making a larger impact beyond the intended beneficiary of the design. For this to happen, inclusive design must be integrated into design in general. This is known as the “curb-cut effect”. Curb cuts, for example, were designed for disabled veterans. However, it helps everyone; people in wheelchairs, people with strollers, cyclists, pedestrians using a walker or cane and so forth. When designing inclusively, a broad beneficial impact should be strived for.