The time has come to say goodbye to Mission 9: Outside Looking In. Over the last period we’ve explored the shallows of inclusive design, what it means, and why you should pay attention to its’ principles. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we unfortunately never dug to the depths that we wanted to go, but as a whole, it has still turned out to be a great and comprehensive introduction to the principles of inclusive design.

Looking back at some of the productions we’ve made there is a clear consensus: more inclusivity in the design process is desired both by users and by designers, but questions remain about its implementation. In truth, there is still much to learn about it. For the professionals, too. But what matters is that there is a continued and genuine interest in improving the design process. We see this all around us: with practicing designers, in education and in non-designer attitudes towards design. The future of inclusive design is in the mainstream, but it requires our continued vigilance and investment to get it there.

We also need to consider our goals for inclusive design. Is co-design the ultimate form of inclusive design? Or is the democratization of design tools to allow more people to design their own solutions what we really need to be pursuing?

Here are my final thoughts:

If you want to continue learning about inclusive design, I have put together a short list of some organizations and resources you can look to for further information:

• Microsoft‘s Inclusive Design Resources
• Nielsen Norman Group‘s Summary of Inclusive Design
• University of Cambridge Inclusive Design Toolkit
• Interaction Design Institute‘s Inclusive Design Primer
• Inclusive Design Research Centre on ‘What is inclusive design?’
• Convergence, a cooperation between the TU Delft, Erasmus University and Erasmus MC to tackle modern challenges

With that, we are signing off. HEMD Missies will return after the summer with a new topic in this one’s place, and we hope to see you there.

Eager to read more about inclusive design? Check out our previous posts about Mission 9: Outside Looking In on the topic:

• ‘Design your Life’: De gebruiker als design lead
• Detechtives afl. 6: Inclusive Design in het Onderwijs
• Update Mission 9: Looking Ahead
• Why focus on minimizing exclusion?
• Introductie Missie 9: Outside looking in

De producties voor deze missie werden ondersteund door redacteur Sander van Velze.