Today, Evan Carpenter-Crawford, one of Sundberg-Ferar’s fearless Sr. Product Designers and HMI Specialist, was an invited speaker at the Include 2019 conference. Evan moved the audience with his presentation, “Restoring Dignity through Design Research”, and later joined other design leaders in a panel discussion on learning from failure to deepen our understanding of inclusive design.
Include is a biennial international conference that focuses on issues central to inclusive and people-centered design. The conference is attracts thought leaders in design, education, and commercial industry from all over the world. Among this year’s speakers were also representatives from Johns Hopkins Medicine, Royal College of Art, MooreDesign Associates, the Smithsonian and tons more. This community from across the front line of inclusive design gathered together to focus specifically on Detroit’s strategy to drive inclusive growth.
This also was the first time the conference was hosted in America by College for Creative Studies and Design Core Detroit. It was in this momentous context that Evan explored the nature of inclusive design using the case study of Obi, a robotic dining device to individuals with limited upper mobility. His discussion emphasized that inclusion doesn’t reside in one isolated product or experience, but rather is the product of a broader context that must be addressed as a whole. A product, such as Obi, represents just one moment in a chain of events that, together, create inclusion. There are multiple other points in this chain of events that come before and after that one moment. Each one is an opportunity that must be addressed if we are to truly bring inclusivity to a group of users. Moreover, when thinking about any product’s lifecycle and its potential for adoption by its users, you could be missing out on a whole population of users who would otherwise love to buy your product, if not for the fact that they simply can’t access it. Even if your product appeals to the early adopters and sits on the leading edge of the adoption curve, you’re still not maximizing your product opportunity if it’s not designed for inclusion.
If the overall goal is to maximize opportunity, inclusion has a part to play.
Learn more about Sundberg-Ferar’s design research in the development of Obi.
Learn more about Evan and read his latest article.