Inclusive Design Guidelines - Design Crit Notes - Feb 8/2016

Owned by Dana Ayotte
Last updated: Feb 08, 2016
2 min read
  • practices as middle ground/central entry point makes sense - demonstrates theory (principles) and practice (tools) coming together
  • Principle of Interconnectedness - what is it?
    • could describe e.g. group work in classroom with students working together with differently configured interfaces
    • "mixed agency" - autonomy without individualism (i.e. I need help, I have a community that I can draw from)
    • P4A - infrastructure (system) --> ecosystem (people)  i.e. users have an impact on the system
    • From P4A Misconceptions doc: complex systems don't act predictably or in a way we can control. in each "domain" there are ruts of thinking and doing that often expect control or prediction or know-ability. When dealing with systems that are in and of themselves complex AND also with humans who are infinitely unique and complex and changing AND also with our world made up of "verticals of complexity" (like social and cultural, political, market, economic, and technological) we are further challenged to understand how people and systems interact in an emergent, evolving way. 
  •  Principles cards
    • could define principle on one side, and counter-principle on other side
    • we can keep focus on the positive aspects while including in a definition what works/ what doesn't work (from our own experience)
    • e.g. ”de-prioritize visual" (practice) —> flip to positive - "design for ---- first" e.g. design for keyboard only first or design for alternate modes etc
  • Practice - design for uncertainty/build for extensibility
    • stress importance of using inclusive tools
    • relates to curb cut effect - e.g. OXO - broader impact than expected/planned for
    • how do we define this in practice? this relies on serendipity over which we have no control, but there is something about staying open to changes or responding to change? 
    • something about people getting their hands on a design - using it, experimenting with it - continual recontextualisation - getting designs into users hands early and often
    • how do you put things together to anticipate unanticipated uses / re-mixing etc
    • designing for the "margin" allows for the curb-cut effect to happen
    • universal design approach as a way to achieve this? combined with adaptability
    • universal design necessarily left out adaptability - inclusive design adds this back in

Discussion to be continued…