Inclusive Design
Inclusive design is a design process in which a product, service, or environment is designed to be usable for as many people as possible, particularly groups who are traditionally excluded from being able to use an interface or navigate an environment. Wikipedia
The objective of inclusive design is to make artifacts accessible to and used by as many people as possible in a wide variety of situations.
For our case, it is necessary to have a universal design that is inclusive to a variety of people that may have different handicaps:
- Perceptual
- Blind
- Partially sighted
- Deaf
2. Motor
- Limited motion
- No use of limbs
- Use of mobility assistance
3. Cognitive
- Dementia
- Down's Syndrome
- Autism
Participatory Design
Participatory design means involving users in design from the earliest stages. It can help researchers to interact with patients and develop functions that are neglected from the earlier stages.
Researchers would get a deep understanding of users and their needs so that they can empower users.
SCE and Inclusive Design
In the SCE process, inclusive design is also an important part. There is no generic "disabled user". Creating different personas and scenarios helped us to consider a more robust user.
- Personas and scenarios
Envision diverse users: We should envision as many as possible personas and scenarios to include as many different situations as possible. However, it is impossible to include all kinds of situations in the prototype as the inclusive design is a dynamic process. It should be used and evaluated throughout the whole development process.
2. Design patterns
Address possible social, cognitive, affective, and physical differences: All people have differences, which makes design patterns extremely hard. We need to consider and address the potential differences between people.
3. Evaluation
Involve diverse users: Evaluation would have more powerful insights if it involves more people. Unexpected situations may be presented during the evaluation process, thus we can fix the problem and make it more suitable for different people.
Our Design
Our design was already made for people with dementia. However, this lecture and the feedback from the presentation of the previous week helped us to consider two more general cases:
Deaf patient
Use of redundant information leveraging both audio and visual channels of communications between Pepper and the PwD
Price
Need to do the maths, because it might be that Pepper's cost averages out.
Different needs
We paid additional details to not make wrong assumptions about our users. By not stereotyping, not patronizing, or stigmatizing the patients.
-> Examples?