Interface design – not only the harmony of colors, quality typography and beautiful pictures. A professional specialist should create projects for different categories of users, taking into account their needs.

WHAT IS INCLUSIVE DESIGN

The concept involves creating the most accessible interface. People of different age groups with individual features interact with applications and sites by certain templates. The task of the designer is to develop a balanced project and meet the needs of different groups of users.

Inclusive design implies maximum accessibility. This is one of the main principles of the concept. Accessible design is a simple interaction between the interface and the user. When a person after installing an application or the first visit to the site knows what to do and knows the result in advance. There will be categories of posts in the menu, and the search form will show the results before going to the corresponding page. Availability is part of an inclusive design strategy, but these concepts are different.

Beginner designers should pay attention to inslusive design. In more and more commercial companies are betting on availability. They are no longer chasing beautiful interfaces, but are trying to reach as many percent of the audience as possible. To use the application, both color-blinders and people with other visual impairments can.

Inclusive design has not yet become the main concept, but there are positive changes. Companies that turn to designers for the development of interfaces, are increasingly asking about the possibility of adapting projects to different categories of users. It is important to remember that one of the objectives of the concept is to provide access to information and give maximum tools for easy interaction with the interface.

4 PRINCIPLES OF INCLUSIVE DESIGN

The concept of inclusive design is not as complex as it seems at first sight. Specialists will have to spend time on new knowledge and adaptation, but the result will pay off all efforts.

• Perceptibility

Users should be able to perceive information in any available way. Blind people are greatly aided by voice assistants, who sound the information on the screen. Artificial intelligence helps to solve any problem.

People with hearing loss cannot watch a video without a sign language interpreter or a text track. On video hostings like Youtube, automatic subtitle translation into different languages is built in. This is not enough for comfortable viewing of the content.

• Intelligibility

The information in the interface should be clear to everyone. If a project is created for a financial niche, it is not necessary to communicate with the audience only in the language of professional terms. The simpler the text, the better. A lot of books have been written on this topic and there is even a special concept “infostyle”. There are many different ways to tell about products, companies and services. There is no selling text, the secret of success is simplicity, accessibility and texture.

• Reliability

Besides perceptibility and comprehensibility, reliability plays an important role. This property implies product stability. Updating the operating system or changing the product should not affect important functions. People with physical features often do not update applications because they are afraid of losing access to useful settings. They sacrifice features to continue using the application.

• Controllability

Without access to the features of the application, it becomes useless. Give people the ability to control the interface in any way they can. Voice assistants are not just invented to quickly learn the weather forecast. They also solve the problems of people who can not control their body.

A designer has to develop a project with maximum audience coverage, spend time to study the peculiarities of information perception, look through cases and add new services and applications to the list of tools.

Checking the design for inclusiveness is a difficult task. Without the Internet, the designer would hardly be able to solve it. Now you can publish a post in social networks, get feedback and make changes to the project. Users with visual or hearing impairment will gladly come to the aid. They understand that the fate of another product, which will be designed with due consideration of physiological features, depends on their cooperation.

Give up the standard user image, which is widely used in interface development. The average representative of the target audience does not reflect the features of all user groups. Look deeper, collaborate with different people and create projects with a focus on social responsibility.

Briefly articulate the principles of inclusive design:

• Give the same tools to all users. Try to find an equivalent for people with special needs.
• Do not forget about attractiveness. People with visual impairments do not just want information; they also appreciate beautiful design.
• Give up on templates. Users have different patterns of behavior and you need to consider everything.
• Develop as simple interfaces as possible. If you do not need the help of Google to understand the content, the task is completed successfully.
• Present information so that it could be understood by people regardless of their physical characteristics.
• Make sure that the interface does not bother users.

It will take a lot of time and effort to work with inclusive design. The designer will be proud of his project, and customers will get coverage of segments of the audience that previously could not interact with the product.