Design Principle 02 – We Will Design to be Inclusive
Studio Notes | Short Reads
This post is part of a series exploring the Design Principles for Government in Ireland. If you’d like to start from the beginning, check out our introductory post here.
The second of the Design Principles for Government in Ireland brings sweeping ambition… to design to be inclusive is to ensure that nobody, absolutely nobody, is left behind. Why is design relevant to this ambition? Firstly, there is significant legacy in the use of design to ensure that products, and services are accessible to all.
For example, the use of “Universal Design”* is an approach that has been advocated in digital and physical products, and in buildings, streets, playgrounds, transport infrastructure and beyond. There are also well-developed design standards for accessibility on the web, and in mobile applications.
Going Beyond Accessibility
Inclusion goes beyond accessibility, and means that people of every background, every demographic group, every level of ability – all people – must be included by public services and be empowered to utilise the supports they provide.
Design can help here too – because understanding diverse needs is at the core of a design process, and testing with diverse groups of people is too.
In the design of social support services, for example, an inclusive approach might be to use co-design, where representatives from diverse groups work together to design what these services might look like. The result is a service which is better tailored to the unique circumstances and challenges faced by the groups involved. Depending on the service this might mean involving groups such as young parents, the elderly, workers in precarious employment, or new arrivals to Ireland.
With a robust design approach, the services are designed with a deep understanding of the needs of service users, including those “hard to reach” cohorts. They are also tested and iterated with diverse service users – meaning problems can be caught early and addressed through iteration (more on that in a later post).
What does this look like in practice?
A relevant example of this is our work with Dublin City Council to co-design and prototype an agreed consultation process for Disabled Persons Organisations. During that design process we involved representatives from many of Ireland’s DPOs, staff from within the council, and elected representatives. Among the DPO representatives involved were disabled people from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.
The experience, skills, and perspectives of all these stakeholders helped us define the needs which the consultation process would need to meet – on all sides of the equation.
Once the process was designed, it was tested in its first version on three projects under development across the city, real consultation was established and we learned from the feedback of everyone involved.
The final version of the process was vastly changed from that first proposal, and further development continues in response to evolving needs.
It is worth noting that the design process itself needed to be adjusted regularly to enable inclusion – each meeting and workshop had differing accessibility needs, communications were prepared in multiple formats, and lots of work was done to ensure that everyone came to the table as equals.
How can you get started?
Designing to be inclusive starts when you break out of your filter bubble and try to reach the people who are difficult to reach. Ask yourself “Who are the people who never come through our doors?”. Finding ways to reach these people and understand their needs is the first step to designing a more inclusive service.
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* For more information on Universal Design, check out Ireland’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, and their Universal Design Grand Challenge Student Awards where our own John Lynch was a member of the jury in 2023.