The document discusses inclusive design and provides an overview of a toolkit created by Microsoft to support inclusive design. Some key points: - Inclusive design aims to design products for the greatest number of people by considering factors like ability, age, gender, language etc. It recognizes that exclusion can be temporary or situational. - The toolkit contains activity cards organized around five phases of design (get oriented, frame, ideate, iterate, optimize) to incorporate inclusive design practices. - The cards provide instructions for activities, intended outcomes, and tips. They aim to help teams recognize exclusion, learn from diversity, and solve problems to benefit many users. - The toolkit is meant to supplement existing design processes and

1. Microsoft Design
Inclusive

2. Brittany Mederos
Product Design Manager at Microsoft
@brim
Designer’s Hearth

3. What is Inclusive Design?

4. Inclusive Design
Accessibility
Location
Gender
Language
Education
Emotion
Age
Connectivity
Vision
Hearing
Cognitive ability
Mobility
Thinking beyond accessibility

5. Disability as personal attribute
“In the context of health experience, a
disability is any restriction or lack of ability
(resulting from an impairment) to perform
an activity in the manner or within the range
considered normal for a human being.”
–World Health Organization
1980
Disability as context dependent
“Disability is not just a health problem. It
is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the
interaction between features of a person’s
body and features of the society in which he
or she lives.”
–World Health Organization
Today

6. 7 The case for inclusive design | 8
Who we design for
If we use our own abilities and biases as a
starting point, we end up with products
designed for people of a specific gender,
age, language ability, tech literacy, and
physical ability. Those with specific access to
money, time, and a social network.
Who gets excluded
When it comes to people, there’s no such
thing as “normal.” The interactions we
design with technology depend heavily
on what we can see, hear, say, and touch.
Assuming all those senses and abilities
are fully enabled all the time creates the
potential to ignore much of the range
of humanity.
Hi

8. 23 Recognize exclusion | 24
Sometimes exclusion is temporary
Even a short-term injury or context affects
the way people interact with the world
around them, if only for a short time. Think
about looking into a bright light, wearing a
cast, or ordering dinner in a foreign country.
Sometimes exclusion is situational
As people move through different
environments, their abilities can also change
dramatically. In a loud crowd, they can’t
hear well. In a car, they’re visually impaired.
New parents spend much of their day doing
tasks one-handed. An overwhelming day
can cause sensory overload. What’s possible,
safe, and appropriate is constantly changing.
Exclusion can be temporary
and situational
Think about looking into a bright light, wearing a
cast, or ordering dinner in a foreign country.
As people move through different environments,
their abilities can also change dramatically. In a loud
crowd, they can’t hear well. In a car, they’re visually
impaired. New parents spend much of their day
doing tasks one-handed. An overwhelming day can
cause sensory overload.
What’s possible, safe, and appropriate is constantly
changing.

9. The Persona Spectrum
We use the Persona Spectrum to understand
related mismatches and motivations across
a spectrum of permanent, temporary, and
situational scenarios. It’s a quick tool to help
foster empathy and to show how a solution
scales to a broader audience.
Permanent Temporary Situational
Touch
One arm Arm injury New parent
See
Blind Cataract Distracted driver
Hear
Deaf Ear infection Bartender
Speak
Non-verbal Laryngitis Heavy accent
The Persona Spectrum
We use the Persona Spectrum to understand related
mismatches and motivations across a spectrum of
permanent, temporary, and situational scenarios. It’s
a quick tool to help foster empathy and to show how
a solution scales to a broader audience.

10. Examples of
Inclusive Design

11. Sidewalk Curb Cuts

12. The beauty of constraints
Designing for people with permanent
disabilities can seem like a significant
constraint, but the resulting designs can
actually benefit a much larger number of
people. For example, closed captioning was
created for the hard of hearing community.
But, there are many benefits of captioning
such as reading in a crowded airport, or,
teaching children how to read.
Similarly, high-contrast screen settings
were initially made to benefit people with
vision impairments. But today, many people
benefit from high-contrast settings when
they use a device in bright sunlight. The
same is true for remote controls, automatic
door openers, audiobooks, email, and much
more. Designing with constraints in mind is
simply designing well.
Hard of hearing
Reading airport captions
Teaching a child to read
Closed Captioning

13. Facebook apps for low connectivity
Traveling

14. "Inclusive design is for those who
want to make great products for
the greatest number of people.”

15. 53 The toolkit | 54
The toolkit
This set of guidelines is part of Inclusive:
A Microsoft Design Toolkit. The toolkit is
made to work within an existing design
process. It’s based on three principles:
• Recognize exclusion
• Learn from diversity
• Solve for one, extend to many
We can use this toolkit to evaluate our
existing processes, and develop new
practices. It will continue to evolve as we
learn through experience.
The Toolkit
It’s based on three principles:
• Recognize exclusion
• Learn from diversity
• Solve for one, extend to many
We can use this toolkit to evaluate our existing
processes, and develop new practices.
Anatomy of the activity card:
Stage of design
process:
designated with a name, a pattern,
and a color
Purpose: a quick description of the activity,
aimed at the desired outcome
Instructions: the how-to that can be read
out loud verbatim to facilitate
a group
Materials: suggestions for the bare-minimum
to complete the activity
Tips: possible considerations when
planning or using the activities
Introduction
The activity cards are designed to support many different
goals and outcomes. They’re organized according to
five phases of a design process – follow them as a linear,
comprehensive guide or use them more freely to supplement
your existing practices. Working in tandem with the Support
cards, these serve as a great introduction to inclusive design.
Get Oriented
Equip yourself with the information you need to
get started. This stage introduces empathetic
problem solving and research, and the basics of
inclusive design.
Frame
Learn from different perspectives and apply them to
the bigger picture. This stage informs your design
thinking through the lens of human limitations
and possibilities.
Ideate
This is a generative phase that results in first-round
concepts. You’ll explore the mismatches that exist
in various experiences, and formulate human-led,
purposeful interactions from your discoveries.
Iterate
Here’s where you’ll build and test prototypes of
your solution. You’ll stress test your concepts from
a micro-view and holistically, as you continuously
brainstorm and refine.
Optimize
Take a step back to evolve your assumptions.
Review your solution from every angle, and
measure its success in terms of inclusive design
and real-world feasibility.
Anatomy of the activity card:
Stage of design
process:
designated with a name, a pattern,
and a color
Purpose: a quick description of the activity,
aimed at the desired outcome
Instructions: the how-to that can be read
out loud verbatim to facilitate
a group
Materials: suggestions for the bare-minimum
to complete the activity
Tips: possible considerations when
planning or using the activities
Introduction
The activity cards are designed to support many different
goals and outcomes. They’re organized according to
five phases of a design process – follow them as a linear,
comprehensive guide or use them more freely to supplement
your existing practices. Working in tandem with the Support
cards, these serve as a great introduction to inclusive design.
Get Oriented
Equip yourself with the information you need to
get started. This stage introduces empathetic
problem solving and research, and the basics of
inclusive design.
Frame
Learn from different perspectives and apply them to
the bigger picture. This stage informs your design
thinking through the lens of human limitations
and possibilities.
Ideate
This is a generative phase that results in first-round
concepts. You’ll explore the mismatches that exist
in various experiences, and formulate human-led,
purposeful interactions from your discoveries.
Iterate
Here’s where you’ll build and test prototypes of
your solution. You’ll stress test your concepts from
a micro-view and holistically, as you continuously
brainstorm and refine.
Optimize
Take a step back to evolve your assumptions.
Review your solution from every angle, and
measure its success in terms of inclusive design
and real-world feasibility.
Anatomy of the activity card:
Stage of design
process:
designated with a name, a pattern,
and a color
Purpose: a quick description of the activity,
aimed at the desired outcome
Instructions: the how-to that can be read
out loud verbatim to facilitate
a group
Materials: suggestions for the bare-minimum
to complete the activity
Tips: possible considerations when
planning or using the activities
Introduction
The activity cards are designed to support many different
goals and outcomes. They’re organized according to
five phases of a design process – follow them as a linear,
comprehensive guide or use them more freely to supplement
your existing practices. Working in tandem with the Support
cards, these serve as a great introduction to inclusive design.
Get Oriented
Equip yourself with the information you need to
get started. This stage introduces empathetic
problem solving and research, and the basics of
inclusive design.
Frame
Learn from different perspectives and apply them to
the bigger picture. This stage informs your design
thinking through the lens of human limitations
and possibilities.
Ideate
This is a generative phase that results in first-round
concepts. You’ll explore the mismatches that exist
in various experiences, and formulate human-led,
purposeful interactions from your discoveries.
Iterate
Here’s where you’ll build and test prototypes of
your solution. You’ll stress test your concepts from
a micro-view and holistically, as you continuously
brainstorm and refine.
Optimize
Take a step back to evolve your assumptions.
Review your solution from every angle, and
measure its success in terms of inclusive design
and real-world feasibility.
Anatomy of the activity card:
Stage of design
process:
designated with a name, a pattern,
and a color
Purpose: a quick description of the activity,
aimed at the desired outcome
Instructions: the how-to that can be read
out loud verbatim to facilitate
a group
Materials: suggestions for the bare-minimum
to complete the activity
Tips: possible considerations when
planning or using the activities
Introduction
The activity cards are designed to support many different
goals and outcomes. They’re organized according to
five phases of a design process – follow them as a linear,
comprehensive guide or use them more freely to supplement
your existing practices. Working in tandem with the Support
cards, these serve as a great introduction to inclusive design.
Get Oriented
Equip yourself with the information you need to
get started. This stage introduces empathetic
problem solving and research, and the basics of
inclusive design.
Frame
Learn from different perspectives and apply them to
the bigger picture. This stage informs your design
thinking through the lens of human limitations
and possibilities.
Ideate
This is a generative phase that results in first-round
concepts. You’ll explore the mismatches that exist
in various experiences, and formulate human-led,
purposeful interactions from your discoveries.
Iterate
Here’s where you’ll build and test prototypes of
your solution. You’ll stress test your concepts from
a micro-view and holistically, as you continuously
brainstorm and refine.
Optimize
Take a step back to evolve your assumptions.
Review your solution from every angle, and
measure its success in terms of inclusive design
and real-world feasibility.
Anatomy of the activity card:
Stage of design
process:
designated with a name, a pattern,
and a color
Purpose: a quick description of the activity,
aimed at the desired outcome
Instructions: the how-to that can be read
out loud verbatim to facilitate
a group
Materials: suggestions for the bare-minimum
to complete the activity
Introduction
The activity cards are designed to support many different
goals and outcomes. They’re organized according to
five phases of a design process – follow them as a linear,
comprehensive guide or use them more freely to supplement
your existing practices. Working in tandem with the Support
cards, these serve as a great introduction to inclusive design.
Get Oriented
Equip yourself with the information you need to
get started. This stage introduces empathetic
problem solving and research, and the basics of
inclusive design.
Frame
Learn from different perspectives and apply them to
the bigger picture. This stage informs your design
thinking through the lens of human limitations
and possibilities.
Ideate
This is a generative phase that results in first-round
concepts. You’ll explore the mismatches that exist
in various experiences, and formulate human-led,
purposeful interactions from your discoveries.
Iterate
Here’s where you’ll build and test prototypes of
your solution. You’ll stress test your concepts from
a micro-view and holistically, as you continuously
brainstorm and refine.
Optimize
Take a step back to evolve your assumptions.
Review your solution from every angle, and
measure its success in terms of inclusive design

16. Let’s try it out!
Break into groups of
2-3 people
Share the apps you have on
your home screen, pick one
Run through the: “Context
and Capability” exercise
10 minutes

17. Share ideas

18. Thank you!
53 The toolkit | 54
The toolkit
This set of guidelines is part of Inclusive:
A Microsoft Design Toolkit. The toolkit is
made to work within an existing design
process. It’s based on three principles:
• Recognize exclusion
• Learn from diversity
• Solve for one, extend to many
We can use this toolkit to evaluate our
existing processes, and develop new
practices. It will continue to evolve as we
learn through experience.
Download the full Inclusive Microsoft Design Toolkit
at www.microsoft.com/design/inclusive