Inclusive UX = Thoughtful Design

What is Inclusive User Experience?

As the name suggests, users (people, site visitors, clients, customers, etc) feel that they personally are considered and welcome in that space, be it digital or physical. One example is the

Humans come in all shapes and sizes, abilities, preferences, cultures, past experiences, identities, and sensitivities. Caring individuals take all that into account when interacting with us in person, reading us and our reactions. But can user interfaces do that?

How do we go about creating inclusive experiences?

Can user interfaces communicate our respect for our users?

To a large extent, yes. Whether they accomplish that depends largely on the thoughtfulness of the design.

1. While we share our basic humanity and a desire to be treated with respect, we can NOT assume that people using our product are just like us. They are not. I am not like the person who, just to take a not-so-random example, designed LinkedIn (don’t get me started) or Facebook. Previously, I listed a few dimensions of how we differ (and I did not even get into situational and temporary variability) and as a result, we have different needs and expectations.
2. A lot of these differences are basic, such as skin color. One great example of an interface that does it right comes from E.L.F., a cosmetic company. Their website does not just pay lip service (pun intended) to embrace all skin colors but helps their customers find the right tints both based on adjectives (such as fair, tan, rich) AND by uploading/getting an image of your face when they choose ‘virtual try-on’.

3. For many of these differences, we express our respect for our users by giving them choices and not imposing our own preferences (e.g., pronouns, greetings, tone, settings of non-static content).