[community] Response regarding cost of Inclusive Design for Daniel Ura OCAD

Mon Sep 11 00:20:30 UTC 2017

I would like to respond to Daniel's question from an organizational
development point of view.

My research has led me to believe that organizations continue to approach
planning and problem solving by having so called "experts" find the
solutions rather than having a diverse group of people who have different
perspectives, heuristics, interpretations, and predictions models that
produce better outcomes. Scott Page shows this in his book called The
Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms,
Schools and Societies.
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/scottepage/research-2/diversity-research/

Inclusive design is about recognizing and tapping into the diversity that
exists in our organizations. But we fail to tap into the diversity and use
inclusive process and tools. This results in planning and problem solving
without engaging people who will be effected by the decisions. We see that
more than 70% of change initiative fail.
https://hbr.org/2000/05/cracking-the-code-of-change

Failure to take an inclusive approach results in finding solutions that
cause resistance and having to rework the solution/plan - a costly
proposition. Those who are affected by the solution/plan are not informed
about why and how of the plan. As we say in inclusive design - nothing for
us without us.

Furthermore, the cost/benefit of inclusive design shows that organizations
expend resources, energy, and time in addressing problems that stem from
not taking an inclusive design approach. Managers in organizations are
having to manage cases of discrimination and human rights violation, lower
employee engagement, higher turnover, and lower morale rather than focusing
on business goals. Therefore,organizational effectiveness, efficiency and
profitability is diminished.

I believe organizations can achieve better outcomes by identifying systemic
barriers to inclusion in order to create inclusive cultural practices.
Inclusive design can create that culture and demonstrate the value of
diversity in achieving organizational business goals.

Ather

On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 1:24 PM, Pina D'Intino <pina.dintino at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Kevin I agree and that is exactly what I tried to address in my response
> to him. What I didn't have is resources to  point him to. It can be
> expensive, but it doesn't have to be if it   is included and integrated in
> the fabric of the  organization as part of the business case development,
> SDLC and change management  process for example Most large companies have
> these processes and methodologies place, and often see accessibility as an
> add-on. In truth it is an extension of many existing processes within
> organization. It's about building the knowledge and the on-going training
> in an area that is evolving very rapidly that many organizations fail. Many
> think this  training as a one-time event but like anything in technology is
> being able to stay ahed of the curbve and make sure this is part of what
> they do everyday.
> The practical think is definitely to adopt universal and inclusive design,
> but for organizations it is often about making sure it is well integrated
> and implemented.
> Pina
>
> Pina D’Intino, MDes, PMP, CPACC
> Accessibility Strategist  and Consultant
> t. 416.948.3348
> e-mail:Pina.dintino at gmail.com; pina at aequumaccess.com
> www.aequumglobalaccess.com
> www.linkedin.com/in/pinadintino
> “Together we empower each other to reach our full potential.” D. Onley
> Supporter of Barrier Free Canada (BFC) – www.barrierfreecanada.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: community [mailto:community-bounces at lists.inclusivedesign.ca] On
> Behalf Of Kevin Stolarick
> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2017 11:50 AM
> To: 'John W (personal)'; 'Treviranus, Jutta'
> Cc: 'Daniel Ura'; community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca
> Subject: Re: [community] Response regarding cost of Inclusive Design for
> Daniel Ura OCAD
>
> Not to take away from the wonderful comments about Inclusive Design from
> both Jutta and John, but I feel I should provide a more direct answer to
> Daniel's question.
>
>
> >>Inclusive Design is expensive in the short term yet cost-effective in
> the long term.
> >> I ask the community if there are any links (articles, research, essays,
> etc) that substantiates that claim?
>
> So, rather than take on the question of "what is inclusive design?" which
> I totally grant is very important for his MRP/Thesis, I suggest that Daniel
> look beyond inclusive design and instead look at the topic of the
> cost/benefit of design in general.  I would argue that you should consider
> the extensive work done on the "cost of changes curve" (especially in
> software) and other work done on the value and business value of design (in
> general) -- I daresay even some of the "design thinking" work of Roger
> Martin and others.
>
> I think you will find lots of work that can justify Filipe's statement
> from a general design perspective more than just an inclusive design
> approach.  However, that doesn't invalidate its application to inclusive
> design.  In fact, given all the comments about inclusive design just
> presented, I think you would do well in your thesis to show how inclusive
> design can be expected to deliver even better results.
>
> I do worry a little about your use of "frugal inclusive" -- I think I
> understand where you are trying to go with this.  And, I'm a huge fan of
> jugaad innovation, frugal entrepreneurship, and design under scarcity, but
> saying frugal and inclusive sounds like an oxymoron.  You might have to
> rethink your language here or be very careful about how you present and
> discuss it.
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
> **********************************************************
> Kevin Stolarick, PhD
> @stolarick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: community [mailto:community-bounces at lists.inclusivedesign.ca] On
> Behalf Of John W (personal)
> Sent: September 8, 2017 11:33 AM
> To: Treviranus, Jutta <jtreviranus at ocadu.ca>
> Cc: Daniel Ura <danielura73 at gmail.com>; community at lists.idrc.ocadu.ca
> Subject: Re: [community] Response regarding cost of Inclusive Design for
> Daniel Ura OCAD
>
> I love having this discussion!
>
> I want to add one thread to Jutta's great exposition, which is to urge
> that we take care to be nuanced in our characterization of 'traditional' or
> 'mainstream' product development and marketing.
>
> Most markets are iterative, by which I mean that they have repeated
> sequences of identifying customers and then normalizing them on a
> distribution plot of some kind. So, for example,
>
> - Market A is optimized for the largest number of customers for a product
> (a single bell curve (distribution of needs or preferences). When a
> customer's needs fall along the tails of the curve they are deemed
> 'marginal' or too costly to engage with firms in  the market, so they are
> left out.
> - the tails of Market A, however, are the target market for Market B,
> which creates its own bell curve that also has tails of excluded customers,
> and so on - Market C targets the tails of Market B as its customers, Market
> D targets the tails of Market C, etc. etc.
>
> Market development is, currently, precisely this process of seeking
> marginal customers of an existing market, understanding their needs and
> then meeting those needs through new product or service innovations. It has
> a repeated and continuous focus on marginal customers, trying to re-situate
> them as the dense core of a new market.
>
> This is more feasible now due to digital control and mass customization.
> Think of all the start-ups you know of - many of them are identifying
> marginals and seeking to make them into customers of a new product or
> service offering. This was much more difficult pre-internet and WWW.
>
> Unfortunately, the dynamism of open markets still fails in many instances
> to capture the needs of many people. Those unmet needs are not random,
> though - the various modes of social exclusion such as radialization,
> disability, low income, gender, etc - explain to a large degree (in my
> view) why marginalization continues despite growth and increasing
> sophistication in markets. More than ever, niche markets are feasible - a
> gay men's wine cruise of the Rhine, for example - but the underlying logic
> is still that you need money to play, and to get money you need work.
>
> I think we still must accept that certain aspects of inclusion will only
> come through social policy. As a society, we should insist (legislate) that
> individuals with significant differences be accomodated in the labour
> market, which means in firms and businesses. It's simply another form of
> tithe or taxation - you want to do business in our community, you must
> absorb costs of accomodating workers who are ready and skilled to do the
> work, even if you can't imediately figure out how to profit from diversity.
>
> To me what is so unique about inclusive design is that we now have, at
> this very point in history, tools to make every market more inclusive,
> including labour markets (along the lines Jutta outlines) - but this should
> not be a theory that replaces our existing understanding of why it is that
> marginalization is not random. Critical theory + inclusive design = greater
> potential than ever before to make a peaceful, inclusive, green society.
>
> j
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 9:45 AM, Treviranus, Jutta <jtreviranus at ocadu.ca>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Daniel,
> > With inclusive design, rather than designing for the largest customer
> > base or the average or typical customer, and rather than designing to
> > find the one best solution for the largest number of people, your goal
> > is to create a design that stretches to encompass the largest range of
> diverse needs.
> >
> > If you were to take any population and plot their needs on a three
> > dimensional scatterplot it would look like a starburst with a denser
> > cluster in the middle and points emanating out from that denser
> > centre. The dots at the periphery are individuals whose needs are not
> > met by the standard designs and current markets. They are people with
> > disabilities, people who are marginalized and people who are in very
> small minorities.
> > They are not considered in traditional design processes. Their needs
> > are more diverse or more different from each other than the needs in
> > the denser centre which are more homogenous but also diverse.
> > Collectively the dots at the periphery usually outnumber the dots in the
> denser centre.
> >
> > If you design for only that denser centre, especially as an entity
> > like the government or a public entity that nominally needs to be
> > available to all citizens or customers you will be repeatedly asked to
> > modify your design or to provide additional alternatives. You will
> > also find that for many contexts those individuals that had needs
> > represented by the denser centre will stray to the edges and ask for
> > adjustments. Taking software for example, each modification will
> > likely be a bolt-on or hack. This will degrade your design and make it
> > more difficult to maintain. It will look something like a house with
> > all manner of things added on but not fully integrated. Eventually it
> > will no longer work but not before the costs of maintaining and
> modifying it have steadily increased.
> >
> > If you inclusively design, you design for the largest number of those
> > peripheral and edge needs. Because those needs are so diverse, this
> > means you need to enable personalization, or one-size-fits-one. For
> > interfaces this is attained through a flexible, transformable
> > interface. For industrial design it can be achieved through an
> > inherent and interoperable modularity or adjustability that enables
> extensibility.
> >
> > The inclusive design will be more sustainable, more updatable and also
> > more transferable to initially unplanned new uses.
> >
> > The cost of the design for only the denser centre is initially less
> > expensive but far more costly over time. It’s life span is also limited.
> > The cost for the inclusively designed system that stretches to the
> > edges is more expensive to begin with but it is less costly in the
> > long run and will have a much longer life span. The inclusive design
> > will likely take more time at the start but pay off in less time to
> > retrofit, maintain and train and in longevity.
> >
> > Does that make sense to you?
> >
> > Good examples of this phenomenon include the Web. Anytime edge
> > requirements were included the systems lasted longer and were put to
> > more uses. Think of the brittleness of things like Flash and Flex and
> > then the longevity of CSS. Open APIs and open standards help with
> > interoperability and inclusive design.
> >
> > I’d love to amass good examples of this phenomenon, I’m sure people
> > can think of new examples.
> >
> > Jutta
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Sep 7, 2017, at 5:52 PM, Daniel Ura <danielura73 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > My name is Daniel Ura and I'm a graduate student at OCAD studying
> > Strategic
> > > Foresight and Innovation. I'm starting my Major Research Project
> > > these days, which is about how businesses could integrate Inclusive
> > > Design and Frugal Innovation principles as a strategy.
> > >
> > > Felipe Sarmiento once mentioned to me that Inclusive Design is
> > > expensive
> > in
> > > the short term yet cost-effective in the long term.
> > >
> > > I ask the community if there are any links (articles, research,
> > > essays,
> > > etc) that substantiates that claim. My hope is that by combining
> > > these
> > two
> > > concepts, businesses can utilize Frugal Inclusive Design.
> > >
> > > I look forward to your responses. Thank you.
> > >
> > > Best,
> > >
> > > Daniel Ura
> > > ________________________________________
> > > Inclusive Design Community (community at lists.inclusivedesign.ca)
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> >
> > ________________________________________
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> *John D. Willis | *
> *CMRP, MDes *Inclusive design, strategy and research Toronto CANADA
>
> Web: www.jdwillis.ca
> LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/tojohnw
> Twitter: @TOjohnw
> Skype: johnwillis416
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