Countering design exclusion through inclusive design

Abstract

The world population is aging and the number of people who are experiencing a loss of functional capability is also on the increase. There is a need to design 'inclusive' products to accommodate this wider range of capabilities and to develop metrics to assess the success of such products. Successful inclusive design requires a balance between the demands a product makes of its users and the users' capabilities, along with a number of design metrics and data to enable their evaluation. If the balance is not correct, then there is the potential for design exclusion.