Elizabeth is a UX Strategist at Digital Arts Network New Zealand. An intuitive facilitator and an advocate of inclusive design, she helps teams evolve better products and services by aligning business and organizational interests with humans and their cultures, communities and motivations. Elizabeth spent 15+ years honing her skills in design, mentorship, research, and strategy in traditional and non-traditional ways. She has a few degrees, but believes her coffee dates in places like Ethiopia, Tanzania and Costa Rica taught her more than what she could learn from books. She’s an aficionado of languages - both spoken and unspoken.
What does it mean to be an outsider? Who are the underdogs when it comes to design?
As practitioners, there is a tendency to be overly reliant on prescriptive UX research practices without considering the wider context. These days you hear the words inclusive design everywhere, but what does it actually mean? Is there business or intrinsic value to considering who is excluded and why?
Outsiders and underdogs are two groups of users who are typically excluded in traditional UX due to a combination of legacy practices, risk/liability management and/or structural barriers.
By reviewing trends and case studies, this talk will offer a provocative view on the value of inclusive design and how it may evolve design practices as a whole- and contribute to maximised innovation.
In this talk I will:
**Define and expand on the definition of inclusive design- including why it’s a buzzword today
**Question UX mindsets, practices and relevance
**Introduce the concept of outsiders and underdogs, where they sit in the matrix of products and services and what value they bring
**Use short case studies (1 from Aotearoa specific, 1 from FinTech, 1 from Mobile) to illustrate the pros/cons of being inclusive as well as the connection between inclusive design, innovation and outsiders/underdogs
For one of my case studies, I will bring on a participant from Aotearoa to comment live. I may also bring her back on at the end to wrap up the presentation.
