What is inclusive design?
Inclusive design is about putting people first. It allows a diverse range of people to accomplish tasks in a way that suits their needs.
Design can play a key role in creating social inclusion. The inclusive design research centre defines inclusive design as:
Inclusive design considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.
We are living in an increasingly digital world. There are over 11 million people in the UK with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability. Inclusive design supports a large section of society to gain equal access to products and services. As a result, it helps prevent the marginalisation of people with impairments or disabilities.
Inclusive design is more than accessibility. It is an open and transparent process, including people who have a diversity of perspectives in the design process.
Diversity Is Being Invited to the Party; Inclusion Is Being Asked to Dance
Inclusive design principles
Inclusive design principles:
- provide an equivalent experience so all users can accomplish tasks
- offer different ways to engage with products or content
- give control to user so they can interact with content in their preferred way
- consider the situation and deliver a valuable experience regardless of circumstances
- use familiar conventions and apply them consistently
- help users focus on important tasks, features and content by prioritising them within content and layout
- consider the value of features and how they improve the experience for different user
Adapted from inclusivedesignprinciples.org
Turas inclusion
The principles of equality and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do. Our ambition is to design for the full range of human diversity and deliver an outstanding user-centred experience without stigma or limitations.
It may not always be possible (or appropriate) to create a design that addresses the needs of an entire population, nevertheless we aim to ensure Turas products are usable and accessible to as many people as is technically possible.
When designing products, we adopt a proactive approach to inclusive design. People that can have difficulty accessing or using digital products and services are often included in our design process. While technical accessibility testing is always carefully considered throughout our process, some issues or solutions can only be discovered through working with real users.
We seek out and test Turas products with a diverse range of users. Inclusive design means that all of our users are valued and treated with respect. With empathy, we aim to tackle each problem from different perspectives, hopefully finding solutions that work for everyone.
We work hard to make sure Turas products are as accessible as possible, but we know that there will always be more that we can do to improve the experience for everyone.
Removing barriers to accessing our products is important to us. If you or someone you know are experiencing issues with any of our products, please get in touch. You can email Colin Sanders:
Email: colin.sanders@nhs.scot
Help us design for inclusivity
The Experience team at (NES) regularly visit NHS Boards to test Turas products with real users. We are always looking for volunteers to participate in our studies. Participation in a usability study or research interview usually only takes around an hour. We'd love to hear from any Turas users that are interested in becoming a participant.
We want our products to be as inclusive as possible. If for any reason you struggle to access our applications or have any of the following disabilities you could also help us improve the experience and make it more inclusive:
- hearing
- learning/cognitive
- motor
- visual
Interested in helping us improve Turas products?
If you would like to help us improve Turas products, you can volunteer to participate in usability sessions by contacting the Experience team.
Email the Experience team: nes.ux@nhs.scot
References
Microsoft
Inclusive
Design Design Council
The principles of inclusive design