Inclusive digital design, the Wife of Bath, and narrative perspective
When designing a journey in your product, the voices of our users are central.
The nesting of perspectives
A man and a lion considered the question of which of them was better, and each one tried to prove his ability. As they went along together thus they arrived at a grave on which was painted a picture of a man choking a lion. Seeing this, the man showed the picture to the lion as proof of his power. To this the lion replied:
“This was painted by a man. If it had been painted by a lion you would not see the lion choked by a man but the man choked by the lion.”
- Of the Man and the Lion (translated by Keller/Keating)
In the 21 century, I am playing with my special needs son while listening to a podcast from a Chaucer scholar, Marion Turner, sharing about a character written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 14th century England giving a voice to one of the first narratively subjective characters in English, a woman, who in her tale's prologue, rhetorically references a fable about a lion discussing a cave painting.
In short, it’s a deep nesting of perceptions as we tell each others’ stories: post’s author > Chaucer Scholar > Chaucer, author > Wife of Bath, character > Aesop, author > cave painter > lion.
“Who peyntede the leoun, tel me who”
User experience and the voice of the typically-excluded user
When we design products, we are nesting our narratives. When designing a user's journey in our products, the voice of our users should be central. So how can we get the voice of the user?
If you have a user research department, partner with them. Include users of all abilities in your research.
Although they are not your user, people with different abilities from within your company may be helpful after the problem space is introduced to them.
Collect analytics data on your current users and how they use the product. However, there is not a good way to know which users are typically-excluded.
Try to get a representative substitute such as a product manager or a designer who has experience interacting and receiving feedback from your user.
Seek out an internal advocate that is a native user of an assistive technology or uses software in a non-typical way.
If none of these are options, a non-UX professional may be helpful from a remote usability vendor--however they are not your user and may not be as helpful in a narrow product domain.
No matter your method, the voices of the typically-excluded users of your product domain is key.
Inclusive Design: Experience and Constraints
Multiple voices and perspectives, a theme of (the unfinished) Canterbury Tales which strived to convey the tales of 31 pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral. There was one author, but the author was conveying the voices of those around him from multiple estates of the realm: social, secular, and religious classes.
Recognize exclusion
Exclusion happens when we solve problems using our own biases in isolation. We should learn how to disrupt our initial biases. We should not immediately throw out all our values. Value hierarchies are needed in order to make decisions and are often baked into a company culture. However, you will need to analyze what your organization’s values and processes are and how they can often exclude. Keeping this acknowledgement front-and-center is key when creating a product.
Learn from human diversity
Human beings are experts in adapting to diversity. “Experience” is the first and most significant concept in the Wife’s prologue. She has been out there: traveling, involved in trade and commerce and interacting with her suiters.
How can we, within a user experience organization, learn from human diversity?
Listen or watch a typically-excluded users such as a native user of a screen reader or someone viewing a screen with low visibility.
Offer to audit a product before it goes live in order to look for issues that could exclude some users.
If you are unable to get feedback from the user that you want to include, then, try to use your product as the same user you want to solicit feedback from. Interview a non-mouse user to learn how they consume or operate a screen and go from there.
If you do not have access to your users, look around you, ask your co-workers. Your co-workers are not your customers, but at least they are outside ourselves and could have different abilities than you or a difference background such as language or education.
Try to meet published accessibility guidelines–however, meeting success criteria does not ensure ease of use. They are mostly objective criteria that ensure a wide breadth of users can perceive, operate and understand what's on the screen, but they are not a great metric for inclusive design.
Solve for one, extend to many
Focus on what's universally important to all humans. As a designer, spend significant time using products with assistive technology and simulations in order to get a sense of the day-to-day tasks for a broader set of your users.
In Aesop’s tale, the lion is “navigating” a two-dimensional cave wall that was “designed” by a human. The Wife of Bath is navigating a world not created by her. Our users are navigating a product not designed by them.
Ultimately, what does your product’s user want? They want to complete their task efficiently, independently, and get along with their day–that is to be master of their task and get their job done–and maybe even have time to play with their kids.
What are ways you and your co-workers solve for one and then extend to many?
Inclusive design headings are taken from Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design by Kat Holmes
