Inclusive design is about creating products, services, and experiences that are accessible and usable by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, or any other characteristic. It’s not just a moral imperative; it’s also good business. Research shows that inclusive design can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. So how can marketers embrace inclusive design? Here are some tips and best practices.
Start with empathy
The first step to designing inclusively is to understand your audience’s needs, wants, and preferences. This requires empathy, the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective. You can’t design for someone you don’t understand. This is why diversity and inclusion are so important in the workplace. You need people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to help you design for a diverse audience.
One way to develop empathy is to conduct user research. This can involve surveys, interviews, focus groups, usability tests, or other methods to gather feedback from your target audience. You can also use data analytics to understand your audience’s behavior and preferences. For example, you can track how people interact with your website or app, what features they use the most, and where they drop off. This data can help you identify usability issues, accessibility barriers, or language preferences that you need to address.
Another way to develop empathy is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Imagine you’re designing for someone who has a visual impairment, a hearing impairment, or a mobility impairment. How would you make your product or service accessible to them? How would you communicate with them? How would you avoid stereotypes or assumptions? By asking these questions, you can challenge your own biases and assumptions and come up with more inclusive solutions.
Avoid stereotypes and tokenism
One of the biggest pitfalls of inclusive design is falling into stereotypes or tokenism. Stereotypes are oversimplified, generalized, and often negative assumptions about a particular group of people. Tokenism is the practice of including one or a few members of a marginalized group to give the appearance of diversity, without actually addressing the systemic barriers that exclude them.
Stereotypes and tokenism are not only offensive and exclusionary, but they can also backfire on your brand. Research shows that people are more likely to remember and share negative experiences than positive ones. If your ad campaign or product design reinforces stereotypes or tokenism, it can generate backlash, boycotts, or negative reviews. On the other hand, if your ad campaign or product design challenges stereotypes and represents diverse perspectives authentically, it can generate positive buzz, loyalty, and revenue.
One way to avoid stereotypes and tokenism is to involve diverse voices in your creative process. This can include employees, customers, influencers, or experts from different backgrounds. By co-creating with diverse stakeholders, you can ensure that your message and design are inclusive and authentic. You can also use tools such as the Gender Decoder or the Disability Language Style Guide to avoid gendered or ableist language.
Another way to avoid stereotypes and tokenism is to focus on the intersectionality of identity. Intersectionality is the recognition that people have multiple and intersecting identities that shape their experiences and perspectives. For example, a Black woman with a disability may face different challenges and opportunities than a White man without a disability. By acknowledging and representing the diversity within diversity, you can create more nuanced and inclusive messaging and design.
Design for accessibility
Accessibility is a key component of inclusive design. Accessibility means designing products and services that can be used by people with disabilities or impairments, such as vision, hearing, mobility, or cognitive. Accessibility is not just about compliance with legal requirements, but also about providing equal access to information, goods, and services for all customers. Moreover, accessibility benefits not only people with disabilities but also people with temporary or situational impairments, such as a broken arm, a noisy environment, or a slow internet connection.
Designing for accessibility requires a shift in mindset and methodology. You need to think beyond the “average” user and consider the needs of all users. You also need to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a set of internationally recognized standards for web accessibility, and apply them to other digital and physical products and services.
Here are some examples of accessible design practices:
Use clear and concise language, with simple sentence structure and active voice
Provide alternative text for images and videos, for screen readers and people with low bandwidth
Use high contrast colors, with a minimum color ratio of 4.5:1 for text and background
Use descriptive and meaningful labels for buttons, links, and form fields
Provide keyboard shortcuts and skip links, for people who cannot use a mouse or touch screen
Provide closed captions or transcripts for videos, for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
Provide sign language interpretation or audio descriptions, for people who are blind or low vision
Provide adjustable font sizes and line heights, for people with low vision or dyslexia
Provide audio feedback or haptic feedback, for people with hearing or visual impairments
By designing for accessibility, you can not only comply with legal requirements but also improve the user experience for all customers. For example, captions can improve the comprehension and retention of information for people who are not native speakers or who prefer to read instead of listening. High contrast colors can improve the readability and usability of your website or app in bright sunlight or low light conditions.
Measure your impact
Finally, to embrace inclusive design, you need to measure your impact and continuously improve your design. This requires setting clear goals and metrics, tracking your progress, and soliciting feedback from your customers and stakeholders.
Some metrics you can track include:
The accessibility score of your website or app, using tools such as WebAIM’s WAVE or Google’s Lighthouse
The satisfaction score of your customers with disabilities, using surveys or usability tests
The revenue or engagement generated by your inclusive campaigns or products, compared to your non-inclusive ones
The diversity and inclusion metrics of your team, such as representation, retention, and leadership
By measuring your impact, you can identify areas for improvement and opportunities for innovation. You can also communicate your success stories and challenges transparently and authentically, and inspire others to follow your lead.
In conclusion, embracing inclusive design is not only a moral imperative but also a business imperative. Inclusive design can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue, while avoiding negative backlash and exclusionary practices. To embrace inclusive design, marketers need to start with empathy, avoid stereotypes and tokenism, design for accessibility, and measure their impact. By following these best practices, marketers can create more meaningful, impactful, and inclusive campaigns and products, and contribute to a more just and equitable society.