Designing for the person with the greatest need produces a solution that works better for everyone else.
Literal meaning: Inclusive design is a design methodology that begins by identifying and centring the needs of people who are typically excluded — people with disabilities, older users, non-native speakers, people with low digital literacy — on the basis that solutions designed for the margins produce better products for everyone.
Origin: The methodology was significantly developed by Kat Holmes, whose book Mismatch: How Exclusion Shapes Design (2018, MIT Press) became a foundational text. Holmes, formerly at Microsoft, argued that exclusion is always a design failure — and that designing for excluded users reveals design problems that affect all users. Microsoft’s inclusive design toolkit, developed with Holmes, explicitly uses disability and edge cases as design drivers. The approach builds on Universal Design but shifts the methodology: rather than aiming for a universal standard, it starts from specific excluded perspectives.
A design methodology that starts from excluded users — on the basis that solutions produced at the margins work better for everyone.
The Appeal: Inclusive design has a strong evidence base. Voice control, developed for users with motor disabilities, transformed how everyone interacts with devices. Email and SMS, designed in part for users who struggle with voice communication, reshaped how everyone communicates. The curb cut effect — design solutions for disabled users improving everyone’s experience — is well-documented and repeatable.
The Friction: Inclusive design requires that excluded users are not just consulted but are active participants in the design process. Accessibility adds features for disabled users after core design decisions are made; inclusive design requires that disabled users are present when those decisions are being made. Universal Design is the philosophical aspiration; inclusive design is the operational methodology. The structural barrier remains: most design organisations do not employ the people they most need to include, and inclusive design cannot be practised from a distance.
Why This Matters: Inclusive design names a principle that is counter-intuitive to most design practice: start with the hardest case, not the average case. Once you know that principle, you can ask of any design: who was the hardest user we designed for?
Related terms: Accessibility · Universal Design · Digital Exclusion · Ageism (Digital) · VSD (Value Sensitive Design) · Digital Divide
Read more:
- Mismatch: How Exclusion Shapes Design — Holmes, K. (2018). MIT Press
- Inclusive Design Toolkit — Cambridge Engineering Design Centre (2013)
- Inclusive by Design: The Evolution of Google’s Product Design Practices — Berkeley Haas Case Series. (2025). UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
- The Value of Inclusive and Equitable Practices in Product Design — UC Berkeley Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership. (2024). Berkeley Haas.
- Microsoft Inclusive Design — Microsoft. (n.d.). Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit.