Designing for diversity
Challenge
As part of a diversity and inclusion initiative, a consumer technology brand asked Plan to help develop a strategy for designing for a diversity of users. Two core challenges were defining what good would look like and how we would measure it.
Approach
The first step was to frame an internal understanding of what we were trying to achieve – from an ethical and commercial perspective. The next was to gather and aggregate existing data from various sources to build a picture of what we knew about the current state of user inclusion, which highlighted significant data gaps and some surprising results that contradicted internal assumptions.
The critical step forward was defining some fundamental principles and measures that clarified the ambiguous and emotionally charged topic in a concrete and actionable way. We used the statistical model we developed to financially size three demographic opportunity areas for the company and developed some protocols on conducting consumer research to help diagnose if certain groups are being underserved.
We concluded the work by producing an engaging video that articulated the key principles, illustrated by internal and external examples, and facilitating a series of workshops for different design teams and regions.
Impact
- The CEO showed the video in a company-wide presentation
- The Designing for diversity team and programme of initiatives gained funding
Related Projects
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