Inclusive Design is DesignOps

Key Insights

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  Inclusive design is most effective when intentional from the start, not accidental during research or development.

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  The question to ask is not who to include, but who is being excluded in the design process.

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  Intel developed an inclusive design maturity model with phases: nothing, awareness, adopting, realizing, and exceptional.

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  Achieving a tipping point of 25% of UX teams in the realizing phase could normalize inclusive design across Intel.

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  Most designers feel they understand and care about inclusion but lack time and knowledge to act on it, showing a head-heart-hands gap.

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  Secondary inclusive research and bite-sized frameworks help busy designers build baseline understanding of excluded communities.

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  An inclusive design card deck was created to educate teams about diverse communities and prioritize research and design focus areas.

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  Inclusive design tools and workshops (e.g., sticky notes, sharpies) can unintentionally exclude people with disabilities or processing differences.

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  Scaling inclusive design can be supported by making design systems accessible by default and sharing inclusive practices broadly.

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  Meaningful inclusion requires ongoing public goals, continuous team check-ins, and involving people with disabilities as collaborators, contractors, or full team members.

Notable Quotes