It’s not easy to be a designer focusing on user experience. You have huge power in your hands when working on website or app design. The art of optimal UX strategy lies in understanding different user profiles and needs. You don’t want someone left out because they can’t use a particular service for different reasons, such as not having the right skillset.
Designers need to apply an inclusive approach to their work from the initial stages. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it can prove to be a smart business move. Here’s a detailed guide on what you should know about inclusive design and how it affects user experience:
Inclusive Design in UX: What Is It?
Inexperienced entrepreneurs often get tips on how to recognize and avoid warning signs that could get their startups into problems. Most business owners are aware of the importance of an online presence. However, only a few think about inclusive design, which is integral to taking your business forward.
Inclusive design is a specific approach to optimizing user experience. It focuses on tailoring the UX to the needs of users who might feel excluded in some areas of their lives. That could be a statistical minority, people with disabilities, or an oppressed group.
The crucial phrase for inclusive design is “intentional inclusion.” You need to consider how to diversify the UX to include all relevant groups. The trick is that “accidental exclusion” is on the other side of the scale. That’s what you need to avoid, but it’s not an easy task. You need to maintain this approach during every step of tailoring the user experience. Inclusive design involves product managers, software developers, designers, etc.
What Causes a Discriminatory or Negative User Experience?
A negative user experience feels discriminatory or exclusionary in the following ways:
- Denying access. Are some groups having problems with accessing certain services or website sections?
- Demeaning experience. Does using a website or service leave a demeaning experience for someone? You need to watch anything from languages to graphics and consider the impressions they leave.
- Sensitive info or data perception. It could be that some data is sensitive to particular groups, or they could see it as offensive.
- Frustrating user experience. If it’s difficult or complicated to navigate the website or use some services, it could leave a frustrating feeling for the visitors.
Why Is Inclusive Design Different Than Accessible and Universal Design?
The term universal indicates that anyone can use the design. The idea is to create a user experience solution that’s suitable for most consumers and allows everyone to use the service without adapting the interface. So, the idea is to identify a design that serves more people with its default version.
You are surely familiar with the term accessibility. Its purpose is simple – it aims to include everyone in a particular experience. It includes adding different features to ensure the experience is open to all consumers. For example, you can add color contrast, alt text in photos, etc.
Now, this leads us to the difference between these designs and the inclusive design. Inclusive design is an approach or philosophy. It focuses on recognizing diversity and applying inclusive processes and tools.
Make Services & Products Accessible to Everyone
Taking care of SEO and creating exceptional content are proven strategies to boost website traffic. But even the best content or products won’t help you if your platform isn’t accessible to everyone.
Some clients might find it impossible to use certain services because of their disability. Others might not have the required tech knowledge to find the desired article on the website. A cluttered interface might make clients frustrated.
If you want to make the products and services widely available, you need the right design and development team. It’s not easy to envision how different consumer profiles use your website or products. Most people believe others have identical or similar experiences to ours, but that’s far from the truth. It takes time and willingness to listen to the stories of others to change that perception.
Most experts agree that a diversified team is necessary to create a diversified experience. It helps to have both male and female designers or other staff members contributing to UX. Your team members should have different backgrounds, abilities, etc. If you build a diverse team, you increase the odds of delivering an optimal user experience. It ensures that you make products and services accessible to everyone.
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Improve User Experience
User experience already puts consumers as the top priority in designing a product, website, or service. It’s no secret that UX impacts your conversion rates. Inclusive design can help enhance the user experience by discovering how to adjust the interface to fit most users.
Many believe that including users in the actual design process is helpful. You can get testers from targeted consumer groups and ask them about specific ideas. After receiving feedback, you have better odds of optimizing the final solution to fit that group’s needs.
You don’t need a fortune to create a phenomenal brand experience since it’s all about making smart moves. That being said, here are some tips on how to use inclusive design to improve user experience:
Offer Different Ways to Engage with Your Service
Many consider this the leading inclusive design principle. The idea is that users have multiple options to ensure they can pick the most suitable one. Of course, the choice could depend on the circumstances or consumer profile, but it’s your task to offer it.
For example, apart from classic website browsing, you should offer transcription or captioning. But, you may wonder what’s the difference between a transcriptionist and a captioner. To make it simple, a transcriptionist transforms audio recordings into text while a captioner takes it a step further by synchronizing the text with the audiovisual production. A full transcript of your blog and captions to videos, are valuable additions.
While we are on the topic, let’s mention the importance of offering an identical experience to all consumers. For example, offering multiple playback speed settings is important to deliver high service quality to people with hearing issues.
Focus on Exclusions Based on Abilities and Situations
You need to monitor for tricky points during the design process. First, consider that consumers might have different abilities. Someone with a visual impairment might use a screen reader that needs alt text for images.
Another exclusion type is based on a situation. For example, let’s say you are in a noisy square with heavy traffic but want to watch a specific video. Providing closed captions will make it easier to follow what happens in the recording, even if headphones aren’t available.
Be Careful with Imagery
Risk management is key in UX. For example, let’s say the form requires people to choose their marital status. They could be single, living with a partner, married with kids, etc. If you add images next to these status options, someone might feel uncomfortable.
Some visitors don’t like seeing a picture of a single person as that makes them feel bad. Others won’t appreciate you picking a white person and not some other skin color. You can diversify and ensure all groups are covered. However, a better alternative is to use abstract forms referring to those groups.
Be Careful with the Text
For starters, always use language that most visitors understand. It’s wrong to sound professional and risk that someone might not understand you. It leaves them frustrated, compromising the overall user experience.
Another sensitive area includes forms where you gather user information. If you need to ask sensitive questions, be careful. Use respective phrases like “I’d like to be shown as….” You can offer as many choices as you see fit and even add a field where the users can input the answer themselves.
Get to a Broader Market
The official CDC report mentions one in four Americans has a disability that affects important life activities. Mobility is the most frequent type, although many adults also deal with cognitive problems, such as concentrating.
If you convert that to numbers, we have 60 million Americans with disabilities. That’s a huge pool of potential customers for a business and one you certainly shouldn’t ignore. The inclusive design considers accessibility one of its top priorities. If you optimize the content for people with disabilities, you provide them with an excellent user experience. That increases the odds of turning them into customers and boosts mutual trust and respect. Thanks to that, you can also improve the customer lifetime value (CLTV), meaning inclusive design can be the way to enhance consumer loyalty.
Avoid Website Accessibility Lawsuits
According to statistics, over 1,600 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in the first semester of last year in the United States. It’s a 64% increase compared to the same period the year prior. The experts agree that these trends will continue rising, especially since the pandemic increased the use of e-commerce and other websites.
Consider an inclusive design when crafting your UX strategy!
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, discrimination in activities in public accommodations should be prohibited. Some experts claim these can apply to websites and not only to physical areas. If you don’t follow the web accessibility laws, you risk lawsuits and various punishments. Apart from requiring a website redesign, your business might pay fines and lawyer fees.
Accessibility is integrated into the inclusive design philosophy. The idea of inclusivity indicates that you should make the experience available to everyone. It ensures that you consider the social impact a high priority. You also protect the business from unnecessary expenses. Apart from paying fines, redesigning a website requires additional investment. By doing things right the first time, you save money, time, and nerves.
Considering Inclusive Design for UX
You might not be aware of how your product or website design affects potential consumers. Some people might have a discriminatory experience due to the content posted on the website. Others might find it hard to navigate or use a particular service due to a disability. While you didn’t exclude these people on purpose, your user experience wasn’t suitable for them.
That’s why inclusive design is critical for anyone’s UX strategy. It observes the user experience project from different consumer perspectives. Thanks to that, it ensures diversification and provides a satisfactory experience to all clients regardless of their profiles and backgrounds.
Growth Hackers is a certified growth hacking company helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners create an effective inclusive design in ux to maximize potential audience, increase productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales. We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
