Universal Usability: Inclusive design 1

Universal Usability: Inclusive design

This paper tries to delve into the nuances of inclusive design

Sree Anirudh J Bhandaram

Masters in Human-Computer Interaction
Department of Information Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology

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ABSTRACT
With current emerging technologies and with all the work that has gone into Universal Usability,
it is essential for widely used applications, products and systems to incorporate inclusive design
principles in their design lifecycle. Conventional products or systems are not available to a vast
population. Designers impulsively design for normal users, or do not know how to incorporate
the needs of users with varied capabilities. It is imperative for designers to take into
consideration the needs of such users. Design approaches for users who are disabled or the
elderly focus on their disabilities, where essentially the level of their capability should be the
concern. In spite of the tremendous growth in the industry, there seems to be little awareness of
inclusive design and a small number of companies have the relevant design methods in place that
enable them to cater to such disabled and elderly users. This paper looks into journals and
research papers that talk about universal usability, specifically for the disabled and the elderly.

UNIVERSAL USABILITY
The Center for Universal Design (1997) defines Universal Usability as “The design of products
and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for
adaptation or specialized design”. It mentions that equitable use is one of the main principles of
Universal Usability among others; this means that the design is useful to users with varied
abilities. If taken literally, these principles could pose a lot of difficulties in the design process,
these principles are not always mandatory and can be tailored based on the product, application
or system. Newell (2000) suggest that one approach to universal usability is “to compromise
slightly on the product design so that, while the design retains the functionality required by
people with disabilities; it still appeals to a wider audience." It does not hurt to compromise
slightly on the functionality if it benefits a wider fraction of users.
During the past few years, significant advances have been made in the fields of designing for
users with disabilities or elderly users with designers giving them considerable thought. We also
see the use of the words “Design for all” in place of the “disabled and the elderly”.

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DESIGN APPROACHES
The basic design approach for any product is: to understand the requirements of the product or
system, develop a solution that addresses all the requirements and evaluate the solution so that it
is effective. Keats et al. (2000) define two principal approaches to designing an interface for
different user capabilities: Design for the necessary features and tailor the system as required for
special users. The second approach is to change the definition of the user to include a wide range
of capabilities. They also suggest the affects of including a broader range of user capabilities to
the design approach of a product as follows: The problem definition should explicitly include
reference to the intended target users, an appropriate design approach for the target users should
be adopted and the target users should be included in the evaluation process; Apart from the
above, in general, three design approaches can be taken while designing, 1. Design for all, 2.
Design for normal users and 3. Design for special needs. Based on the type of application and the
product, a relevant approach can be taken. For example, designing an application for a work
environment where there are no elderly or disabled can take the normal design approach without
the need for stressing on users with disabilities.

User Centered Design

Wikipedia’s definition of User Centered Design is: “In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD)
is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of
an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.” In
UCD, the process put the user above everything else, according to the definition above, the
“needs, wants and limitations” of the end user are given a lot of attention, it is important to note
that the limitations are looked at in user centric design. According to Newell (2000), considering
users with disabilities as a part of the design, gives them the dignity of being treated as normal.
This is really important. In the design process including users with disabilities can be achieved
by following the normal process of design and then identifying such special users and tailoring
the application or product according to their needs. This serves the purpose for a wide variety of
users, including both able-bodied users and users with disabilities.
Nielsen’s (2005) suggests ten usability heuristics for User Interface design; a few of these
heuristics could be related to inclusive design as follows:

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Visibility of system status: The system should keep the users informed of what is going on, this
can be related as providing the right feedback to disabled users by using the appropriate colors
and fonts.
Match between the system and real world: For an inclusive design process, this heuristic can be
related by matching the system with the appropriate actions and interpretations for the disabled.
An example would be to use auditory interfaces for visually impaired users.
Consistency and standards: Apart from following the general design norms, attention can be
given to standards for the disabled, for e.g., http://www.humanics-es.com/recc-disabled.htm has
a set of links for Ergonomic research and design for the disabled.
User control and freedom: Appropriate user control should be provided to users according to
their disabilities, an example of this would be providing captioning to users who are hard of
hearing. Howell (1988a, 1988b) has shown how robots can be used as prosthetic aids to help
disabled users interact with their environment in many ways that were not previously possible.

According to Takkar (1990), there is a large gap between the accessibility of systems by able
bodied and disabled users in spite of technological advances, because designers emphasize on
direct manipulation and touch based interfaces. With the advent of technologies like Web 2.0,
designers compete with each other to make beautiful, aesthetic designs, but in this process, they
forget the needs of the disabled and the elderly, if the important aspects of such technologies are
combined with their special needs, it is easier to attain Inclusive Design.

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DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION

To attain Inclusive design or universal design it is required by researchers and designers to
consider all the possible users of the system, the majority of users being normal and also a
proportion of users being the disabled. Designers can attain this goal by looking into a lot of
previous research that has been put into similar concepts and by following conventions and
guidelines laid out for users with special needs. Merging new and emerging technologies with
requirements of the disabled can prove to be a contributing factor. By using concepts such as the
inclusive design cube (Keats et al., 2000) the design process can be tweaked suitably to address
the needs of inclusive design. Newell (2000) suggests “The development of the concept of, and a
methodology for, User Sensitive Inclusive Design will facilitate researchers in the field to
develop better specialized equipment, and also provide mainstream engineers with an effective
and efficient way of including people with disabilities within the potential user groups for their
projects.”. Although this paper talks about users who are disabled or elderly, the concepts can be
applied to other users too, changing the concepts suitably and applying them to the users’ special
needs.

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REFERENCES
The Center for Universal Design (1997). UNIVERSAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES, retrieved on
01/21/09 from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprincipleshtmlformat.html#top
Newell (2000). "User Sensitive Inclusive Design" - in search of a new paradigm, Proceedings on
the 2000 conference on Universal Usability 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States,
November.
Keats et al. (2000). Towards a practical inclusive design approach, Proceedings on the 2000
conference on Universal Usability 2000, Arlington, Virginia, United States, November.
Nielsen’s (2005). “Heuristics for User Interface Design”, retrieved on 01/22/09 from
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
Howell, R. D. (1988a). The Use of Robots as Cognitive Enhancement Aids by severely
physically handicapped children. Robot Technology Research Group Report, College of
education, the Ohio state university.
Howell, R. D. (1988b). The ethics of Technological Intervention with disabled learners.
Proceedings of the annual convention of the association for educational communications
and technology, January.
Takkar (1990). Ethics in the design of human computer interfaces for the disabled. SIGCAPH
Computers and the Physically Handicapped, Issue 42, May.

Sree Anirudh J Bhandaram