How can you make your product design more accessible and inclusive?

---How can you make your product design more accessible and inclusive? --- Great question! In my point of view to make a product design more accessible and inclusive, I consider three key steps: ?User research: Understand the needs of a variety of users, including people with disabilities. ?Universal design: Apply design principles that benefit everyone regardless of their abilities. ?Continuous testing and feedback: Test with diverse users and adjust based on their feedback. Inclusivity and accessibility are essential for a successful and ethical product.

One of the best ways to understand your users to make your product more accessible is to involve them in development. An engaged audience with specific needs can help shape aspects of your product to be more inclusive. Think about having a continuously running accessibility beta. It requires an extra time investment to get them running, but having access to these types of users will help you produce a better product for everyone.

Understanding the users complete requirements definitely is the first and most important step in designing a product that is accessible and inclusive. The research done to grasp the user's inputs has to be as diverse as possible and need to touch all sections of the users. I have seen very small sample of users being surveyed in a limited manner leading to a skewed conclusion of the users requirements. It needs to be holistic and cover a wide spectrum. Then the approach to responding to these inputs of users with a design solution will surely be very holistic and apt for the users.

Apart from understanding usage, understanding value proposition ( value/ cost of acquisition ) in their context and how quickly consumers can access this value/ utility will be important.

Optimum and affordable products without impact for users globally, keeping in mind for recyclablity materials. Cost shall be negotiable without tolerating quality and durability.

A Timeless Universal Design must focus into its simplicity of features, its uniqueness of shape Silhouette and its Apeal, only then the accessibility standards must follow -

Applicable standards will have to "validated" before the product hits the market! Physical hardware / electrical products go thru a number of safety, UL, CE certifications before going live onto the market! Ex: I wouldn't want to get an electrical shock while using a blender! So, applicable standards must be validated and "certified" before launch! Medtech (healthcare), auto, aero - software based products, usually go through extensive validation for applicable standards before hitting on to the market! For EX: AI driven, Autonomous vehicle, you wouldn't want them to go "B" location instead of a "A" location. These may look simple, but needs extensive validation & certifications!

If it's a product specialty, then we have to find out what elements are needed, then we explain the advantages of our product. Plus HSE and cost calculation issues, and product Supply liability.

Checking your designs against a list of standards is great, but these can also create missed opportunities to push past these standards and make significant impact. To enable this, really listen to the core users, and observe how they interact with existing products or similar products when in an environment that serves a diverse set of people.

I agree but this depends on case by case. Acceptable quality standards are good to comply with. But what if the experience you are trying to create does not exist. This requires out of the box imagination and utility and requires a lot of foresight and core understanding of the consumer’s difficulties and how to find solutions. So you may create a completely new and disruptive product for which you need to have nobel ways of thinking about acceptable standards and Benchmarks.

I believe one of the meaningful ways a team can build genuinely accessible and inclusive products is by adequately representing the target segments in the development and marketing teams. The tech teams often sit in ivory towers and are composed of people who might not always have deep empathy for the target segment. While they mean to do the right thing, but they are limited in their thinking due to not having or having a minimal amount of "lived experiences" that make one truly understand the nuances that "extreme users" face. Having someone on the team who faces poorly designed products on a daily basis could serve as a great opportunity to convert the painpoints into meaningful feedback.

Inclusive Testing Incorporate inclusive testing into your product development lifecycle. My approach suggests involving users with disabilities in usability testing. Their insights can uncover critical design improvements that benefit everyone. Scalable Typography and Color Contrast Consider typography and color contrast carefully. Stress using scalable fonts and high contrast colors to enhance readability for users with visual impairments. Assistive Technology Compatibility Ensure compatibility with assistive technologies. Involves testing your product with screen readers, voice recognition software, and other assistive tools to guarantee seamless functionality.

Am example of this is utilizing different focus groups that represent different segments of the overall consumer group. Each of these focus groups can help pilot test the end user experience of your design or prototype and make the design more robust and allows for a more sustainable and rigorous design.

DEI must be embraced differently - from the end user perspective & from the design team perspective! The mentality of the product user group must be clearly understood! What does it mean to them culturally, professionally, are they any restrictions - all of these must be known and respected! Building a cross functional / cross cultural team is very important for organizational growth. The product vision must be clear to all of these people so they become product ambassadors to develop a best in class product.

We also need to explain with examples of testimonials, on-time delivery, good customer service response. Last is selling price issue.

Product development cycle must be closed loop - meaning feedback, learning and improvement methodology should be a part of the lifecycle and cannot be a force fit! Feedback, user surveys must be incorporated; the product design teams must also be a part of this survey, so they understand from the end-user directly and there is no communication gap in user feedback understand!

Iterative design changes based on user feedback takes time (and money). If you don't have the commitment from top-level leadership for that investment, it will be frustrating for your product development team (not to mention potential customers). Executive management needs to realize, however, that a truly user-friendly, well-designed product can command better margins (unless you are competing in a heavily commoditized market). Customer-centric design will drive brand loyalty.

We always forget to simply just drop the ego and listen to the feedback. Definitely it is easier said than done. Bringing in people with 0 context gives you a ton of valuable feedback.

To foster accessibility and inclusivity in your product design, you can use two project management tools together: PDCA Cycling: Start by setting accessibility goals during design. Implement changes throughout development, test with users, and refine based on feedback. Successive Wave Planning: Organize accessibility goals into phases spanning multiple cycles. Prioritize features and embrace continuous user feedback. This approach aligns with Agile principles, ensuring both short-term and long-term accessibility goals are met while remaining adaptable to evolving user needs and standards.

This is always a great thing to do. Unlearn and relearn new things. Rejuvenate. Reimagine. And go back to the drawing board. This helps to keep ideas fresh and well tested.

DEI must be established as a policy across all product development companies, so people can learn from their own people! Global companies with multiple locations have people from different cultures, locations, etc. They can actually be your voice of customer, put things is perspective during design phase. Continuously people should have opportunities to learn, collaborate and share! These people must be the mentors, who can lead the change - both within organization and globally for products!

Customer and employee stories are a wonderful way to educate and advocate. You can do this informally or formally, especially with the sophistication of today's mobile phones.

I have used customer videos to understand and also share with the teams on what are the unique attributes that the customer sees in your product. And how it gives you new ideas.

Accessible and inclusive product design involves processes, people, and a commitment to customers: 1. Prioritizing user needs. 2. Conducting thorough research and surveys with diverse users. 3. Following accessibility guidelines. 4. Refining designs based on feedback. 5. Cultivating diverse design teams.

For products in highly regulated industries, the opportunities for differentiation dwindle. Yet, a clever product manager can find ways to make an offering stand out even within the constraints of a regulatory framework. The key is to understand and articulate how the product addresses the client’s needs. Prospective customers always need a “reason why” to choose the product, even if the reason is subtle. This is a basic principle of product marketing, and it should not be ignored for regulated products, even if the communications challenge is greater.

-Keep it simple -Know your user -add a dark mode -Keep it consistent -Keep it interactive A user friendly design is the best design.

Making your product design more accessible and inclusive is not just ethical but also good business sense. The 1st step is to decide on the accessibility standard you aim to achieve: A, AA, or AAA. This sets the stage for the level of accessibility to be incorporated into the product design and development. Training is fundamental in this journey. The entire development team—developers, designers, and testers—needs to be educated on accessibility standards and best practices. This creates a shared understanding and commitment towards building an accessible product. Testing for accessibility shouldn't be an afterthought just before the product release. It should be integrated right from the sprint phase to provide early feedback.

Start with the product requirements and test specs. Write accessibility and inclusivity into both specs up front. Get both documents reviewed and approved by all appropriate stakeholders. Iterate until they all approve. Do NOT start formal design activities (except maybe at the sandbox level) until these two documents are complete.

First of all this can be very tricky - when people are asked for their input and then see they were completely ignored their enthusiasm for input can quickly evaporate and going forward that means that your inclusion wont be very inclusive. Still, the first thing you need to do is to determine who your customers (external or internal, can be both) are and make their input a foundation upon which the product will be made. Other inputs then serve as additional upgrades or optimizations without losing the main purpose or goal. This other inputs should later also be broken down into priority classes since most of product design has a limited time frame. There are books written about this but here is my input in cca 200 words ??