Every design decision has the potential to include or exclude people. Inclusive design is used when you want a product or service to incorporate the needs of the widest number of people, regardless of age, gender and disability.
This approach is not just important for reasons of social equality; it also makes good business sense.
All the design decisions that we make at in our consumer healthcare business at GSK use a framework of the seven principles of inclusive design. These are: equitable, flexible, intuitive, perceptible, tolerant, ergonomic, desirable.
This means that inclusive design should accommodate a wide range of individual preferences, strategies and abilities; be easy to understand regardless of skills or knowledge; and should communicate necessary information effectively. It should also minimise hazards; and should appeal to all potential users, avoiding any possible connection to stigma.
So to make sure our products and brand experiences are inclusive, we look at everything from the font types, colours and sizes we use, to the physical products we design, to ensure our brands are made available to the widest possible population.
“A key part of this is identifying the barriers to inclusion early on within the design process, so that good design is able to overcome them,” explained Andrew Barraclough, global design lead in our Consumer Healthcare business. Testing prototypes and products helps us to identify those barriers.