Inclusive Design- Products for All Users

Have you ever felt excluded? Many people find it difficult to carry out simple, everyday tasks such as opening food packages, retrieving cash from an ATM abroad, or finding clothes that fit properly.

Now imagine if you have such pain in your arm that you cannot enjoy the simplest of pleasures, such as calling a friend, using the TV remote, or preparing your favourite meals. All of these examples are affected by, and can be aided by, inclusive design.

Inclusive design is about making sure that as many people as possible can use or consume products, services and spaces. At Ergonomidesign, inclusion takes human diversity as a starting point.

International Recognition

Swedish design has a long tradition of designing products and environments with emphasis on the end-users, which has developed into a trait of Swedish design. During the 70’s and 80’s, there was a considerable shift in attitude towards designing products to meet the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities. Design for the disabled gradually became somewhat of a Scandinavian characteristic, which spread overseas. The international recognition came when MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, held an international exhibition titled “Designs for independent living” in 1988. Over half of the exhibited items were from Scandinavia and of those, half were contributed by Ergonomidesign.

We Are Pioneers in Inclusive Design

Ergonomidesign offers grounded expertise in the theory and practice of inclusive design. Our inclusive approach has its origin in design for the disabled and goes back to the late sixties, before it even had a name.

Thirty-five years ago when we visited people in their homes, we found that people had stopped eating certain types of food because of inability to cut it or because they had difficulties opening the package. One woman said, “Vacuum-cleaning costs two pain killers, while cutting bread costs one”.

During the 70’s and 80’s our studies focused on understanding and mapping difficulties in daily activities for people with disabilities. Through several projects we developed new products that enabled people to carry out ordinary tasks. The objective was to enhance quality of life for people with physical and/or cognitive disabilities by making attractive, appropriate designs available to a broader range of users.

When developing new products, we started by focussing on the requirements and limitations of disabled users. We learnt not only which movements the users could not do, but also which ones they were able to do. This approach has been beneficial in all our design work.

The end result was new designs for familiar objects, many of which are still in use today, e.g. the first angled kitchen knife (put in production 1974), a series of ultralight eating- and drinking equipment,the first advanced gripping tongs, innovative walking aids, educational feeding spoons and an attractive body care series called “Beauty”. Learnings from our in-depth studies with users who are less able have influenced our designs of other products e.g. the Bahco hand tools, the SAS coffee pot and the RTI bicycle handles. The early R&D projects paved the way of an end-user oriented research method which became one of our core competences at Ergonomidesign.

We can proudly say that our designs, developed with focus on the end-user, have resulted in great commercial success for many of our clients. Ejendals' Tegera PRO protective gloves are good examples of this with more than one million gloves sold and sales up 65% in a year (2006-2007).

Our Inclusive Approach and Practice

A truly inclusive design approach means studying and understanding the different socio-cultural factors that influence the way products and services are used. Designing for inclusiveness requires an approach that takes into account the needs of vulnerable groups. By creating solutions catered for diversity, an inclusive design approach can tackle discrimination and increase the individual’s participation in social, cultural and political life.

Fundamental in an inclusive approach is to involve “critical” users in the design process. Critical users are those who will likely have difficulties or be excluded from an activity or social context. By understanding specific activities and varying conditions for critical users, the use limitations and possibilities are identified, serving as criteria for design.

Another important issue is how products or services should be designed to accommodate the needs of both critical and non-critical users. The goal is to identify any contradictory demands or wishes and to decipher whether those can be met in the same product, service or environment, “without compromising the business goals of profit and customer satisfaction”.

At Ergonomidesign we aim to create innovation for all people. The inclusive approach is to include as many users as is reasonably possible. In the end it is about creating innovations that make us feel included rather than excluded.

Språkskap is a service for

more effective learnings

of a second language

The Doro 410GSM and its interface

is specially designed for seniors

but attractive to anyone that

wants an easy to use mobile