How to implement inclusive design?

What are the principles of inclusive design? How to realize Inclusive Design?

Above all, the culture of the project must be marked by a very strong and fool-proof empathy towards all humans. The mentality needed is one of consider each and every person, whether or not they come within our immediate field of knowledge.

Principle #1: offer the same experience to everyone

Regardless of the type of user that will use your web application – disabled or not – the experience must be the same without exception, and without reducing the quality of content or message delivery.

For example, consider alternative content for visually or hearing impaired users. When developing this content and conceptualizing its delivery, it’s important to ensure that the alternative content contains the essence of the original content, and that the quality of the former is not less than that of the original.

If you choose subtitles in your video, make them configurable, for example so that they can change color or be positioned differently on the video. This kind of detail provides a richer user experience.

Principle #2: take the user’s situation into account

Your interface will be used in many types of situations. The challenge is to make sure that whatever the circumstances of use for your web or mobile application, the experience is equal and does not suffer in quality. Your users might be entry-level, experts, on the road, at home, etc.

In each situation, external elements can complicate the use of your interface and diminish its experience.

Think of the contrasts that you can integrate in color usage. When outside, the screen contrast should change to allow it to always be readable.

For videos, if the user does not want to disturb their surroundings, for example when in public places, there should be a way to be opened with default subtitles and muted sound.

Principle #3: always stay consistent

Use conventions known to all. Popular interfaces use well-established design models in their functionality, presentation, content, behavior, etc. Each user must understand and have access to the same functionality and the same content without variations or differences.

Consider tutorials that will help each user to easily understand and be familiarized with the interface.

Place special emphasis and attention on the harmony of the elements in your pages: texts, titles, buttons, required behaviors, etc. A harmonized presentation makes comprehension much easier.

Principle #4: leave the choice to the user

The user must be in control and must be able to interact with the content offered by your application in a fluid and easy way, according to their own preferences and inclinations.

The web application should be free from changes to content that are not triggered by the users themselves. Similarly, a web app should nor restrict a user’s ability to change the orientation of the screen, the font size or the contrast or brightness levels, for example .

Instead of opting for infinite scrolling, why not display a “See more” button? This avoids the content streams that can load and fill automatically. Ban parallaxes or if they fire by default, offer a way to disable and re-launch them. Allow the zoom function to give the possibility of zooming on specific piece of content, and ensure that the zoom does not hide content.

Other principles exist and promote inclusive design:

• Propose several alternatives for carrying out the tasks of the web application, especially if they are complex.
• Always prioritize content and design interfaces that maintain focus and encourage undertaking one task at a time.

In our offshore development platforms located in Vietnam, Madagascar and Mauritius, our teams offer web application, software and mobile application development using the Agile method.

It’s very straightforward to combine this method with inclusive design. Discover the projects that we have put into production for our customers. Software editions, e-commerce sites, content management platforms or web-to-print applications – our experience has been built on many diverse projects.

Let’s talk about your IT project and see how we can build it together.