How to guarantee inclusivity and diversity in UX Research
Diversity and inclusivity are fortunately being given more and more attention in all areas of our society. And of course this includes the user experience as well as the design and development of new products.
What is diversity?
Diversity encompasses everything that is different within a group. The best known types of diversity are cultural, ethnic, linguistic, sexual and functional diversity. Fortunately, we live in a heterogeneous world, where everyone is different and we can learn from each other.
To promote inclusivity and diversity, the most important thing is for people to educate themselves and to know what can make people different. There are so many aspects that influence diversity that the only way to be aware of them is to educate oneself, to meet people from other cultures, ethnicities, speaking other languages, with different sexual orientations or with other functional diversities.
But being different can also mean being the only one to be or to do something specific, to be a minority. Although it may not seem so at first, being different within a unit is a challenge.
Diversity and inclusivity in UX
The inequality that occurs when digital products are not inclusive and do not respect diversity leads to the so-called digital gap. There are two types: the first digital gap, which relates to access to technological equipment; and the second digital gap, which relates to the use and understanding of digital products.
In order for product development to be inclusive and diversity-friendly, it is necessary to make it so from the very first moment a project is initiated. Achieving these goals is a job for everyone on a UX team, from UX Research to UX Content Strategist, UI Designer or UX Designer, regardless of the UX team model.
The role of UX Researchers is crucial, because they are the ones who research users and inform designers on how to develop a product and what features are needed. Customer segmentation is a critical aspect because depending on whether or not diversity is taken into account in your approach, it can lead to the product being designed for only part of the population, and not being inclusive.
It is precisely the recruitment of participants that can lead to user research not delivering all the results it could have. There are many occasions when the audience is difficult to recruit (because it must have very specific conditions for example), or simply because the user profile that has been designed does not really cover all the characteristics that the end user will have.
To achieve this, we need to raise awareness and realise that all of us in the user experience field need to be part of the solution. We must educate ourselves and make use of all the information at our disposal to make product development inclusive and respectful of diversity.
In an interesting post on how to improve inclusivity and diversity that we read in UXinsight, they give us some tips on how to do this as UX Researchers.
- Make sure that the research team is integrated with other departments.
- Explore what diversity means for the organisation you work for and for the team itself.
- Create a safe space to share all ideas and experiment.
- Create routines to review possible unseen needs throughout the design process.
- Reflect the diversity of the end-users in the recruitment of participants.
In an increasingly globalised world, where we are more aware that each individual person has different circumstances, it is imperative that we reflect on and incorporate changes in the way we work.
This is also what we talk about and train in our Specialisation Programmes (these training courses are in Spanish):
This is a translation of the following article published in our corporate website:
