UD - Thinking & Approach

“A responsible activity for a sustainable future, Universal design is a philosophy and a way of democratic design thinking. It is about designing for everyone and takes into account human, gender, social, economic and cultural diversity and differences.” Katrin | Birgit | Ravi

As we all know, people come in all shapes, sizes and abilities from diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds in most societies. There is a large percentage of disabled people in India, many who are circumstantially disabled for shorter periods, older people with age specific limited abilities, people with different literacy levels and who speak varied languages from all classes of society and culture.  

Universal design primarily addresses this diversity and is therefore not a new domain or a discipline but a way of thinking and approach towards including all users as far as possible in the design conception process.

While we all know that there are many definitions to design the essence remains the same: that of it being user/human - centric. Over the last few centuries the design of products, spaces and communication has been focusing on populist consumers who are able physically and cognitively in all respects while people with disabilities and differences are users/stakeholders in the larger whole who have not been considered most often. For example: a microwave oven has a complex functionality for people with lower cognitive abilities and the visually impaired cannot use it; school furniture cannot accommodate children with disability in a convenient manner, railway reservation form is difficult to decipher for a first time traveler from interior India, a retail mall is a difficult space for older people and disabled people to access and navigate through.

The Universal Design approach is about not making an assistive aid specially for the disabled or older people but to make communication, products and spaces which are adaptive, usable, comprehendible, safe, and more importantly visually/emotionally appealing to diverse users. A watch design could be conceived in its use and look to be as cool and classy for the visually blind and not blind people at the same time.