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Inclusive Design and the Bottom Line: How Can Its Value Be Proven to Decision Makers?

  • Anna Mieczakowski
  • Sue Hessey
  • P. John Clarkson
Conference paper
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 8009)

Abstract

Designing technology products that embrace the needs and capabilities of heterogeneous users leads not only to increased customer satisfaction and enhanced corporate social responsibility, but also better market penetration. Yet, achieving inclusion in today’s pressured and fast-moving markets is not straight-forward. For a time, inaccessible and unusable design was solely seen as the fault of designers and a whole line of research was dedicated to pinpointing their frailties. More recently, it has become progressively more recognised that it is not necessarily designers’ lack of awareness, or unwillingness, that results in sub-optimal design, but rather there are multi-faceted organisational factors at play that seldom provide an adequate environment in which inclusive products could be designed. Through literature review, a detailed audit of inclusivity practice in a large global company and ongoing research regarding quantification of cost-effectiveness of inclusive design, this paper discusses the overarching operational problems that prevent organisations from developing optimally inclusive products and offers best-practice principles for the future.

Keywords

Inclusive Design Cost-Benefit Model Principles for Change 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Anna Mieczakowski
    • 1
  • Sue Hessey
    • 2
  • P. John Clarkson
    • 1
  1. 1.Engineering Design Centre, Department of EngineeringUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
  2. 2.BT Technology, Service and Operations, Adastral Park, Martlesham HeathIpswichUnited Kingdom

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