Inclusive Design, Day 8/15: Expand Your Market By Solving One Case First

This is day 8 of 15 in a short series on inclusive design. If you missed earlier posts, see day 1 here or view the full list.

Adopting inclusive design isn’t just about being a good person. It’s a solid foundation for good business — focused on solving real needs for real people.

Barclays Bank understands this and is putting it into practice. Thanks to Beatriz Lonskis for pointing me to this example of smart business and good design.

We’re committed to inclusive design and accessible services — using new technology to make banking easier for you. — “Barclays Access” statement

The full case study is in The Guardian — Barclays Bank learned that embracing inclusive design, starting with accessibility, creates a better solution for all their customers. It’s a commercial opportunity when meeting a real need — not an expensive compliance issue.

Another Barclays accessibility piece in The Times, Smarter technology is improving the lives of disabled people.

Today, I manage all my financial affairs by smartphone,” she says. “It has genuinely transformed my life, cutting out all those frustrating trips to the bank.” — June Maylin (a blind customer of the bank).

June’s story provides an insight into how the technologies designed to make banking easier for everyone can be particularly effective for people with disabilities, and are steadily giving people much more control over their money. Even small, relatively low-tech initiatives can make a big difference.

By the way, I love this aspiration for leadership in this emerging practice on the Barclays Access Twitter profile: “One of our ambitions is to become the most accessible & inclusive FTSE org. Tweets about accessibility & disability issues.”

Small changes make a big impact, and inclusive design can have a major impact on revenue and business success by solving for one and extending to many.

For day 9 of inclusive design, we’ll review the principles discussed so far: 1/ Start with exclusion, 2/ Broaden your perspective to gain empathy, 3/ Bring diversity into teams and processes and 4/ Solve inclusively for one, extend to many.

About this Inclusive Design series — In 1 week I’ll give a talk on inclusive design at WordCamp Phoenix 2018. Leading up to the conference I’m publishing notes on voices, stories, products, and other resources: everything I’m learning about this emerging practice. This is day 8 of 15. Read more about the series.