Products and spaces need to be designed in such a way that they can be used by as many users as possible.This principle is known as the ‘Design for All’ or ‘Universal Design’ principle. First the focus was on making objects and spaces accessible for disabled people, but soon was understood that accessible design could benefit everyone. Good accessible design has four elements: perceptibility, practicality, simplicity and failure tolerance.
Perceptibility. Everyone needs to be able to perceive the design, no matter the physical ability of the person. This means that redundant elements need to be introduced: buttons need not only an icon, but also a relief and braille, or audio feedback in the form of a voice that confirms to blind users the button they pushed.
Practicality. This is obtained when everyone can use the design, whether this person has physical limitations or not. Ongoing physical efforts should be avoided, as well as ongoing repetition of actions. When placing information or control panels, then they should have the possibility to be operated or read both by people sitting in a wheelchair as well as people staying.
Simplicity. The design should be useful for everyone, regardless education, reading abilities or concentration levels. Unnecessary complexity needs to be removed from the design, codes and texts should be consistent and even better to be visualized by means of universal icons. Only relevant information should be shown and the user has to be led through the process of operation step by step.
Failure tolerance. The chance to make a mistake should be reduced. In general we could say that good affordances and selection terms should be used, for instance in buttons or control panels that can only be operated in a certain way. Warnings and confirmation questions could help if the user is to execute an irreversible action. Better is to make it possible for the user to undo his just performed action.
Read more about usability and interactie>Vitra Museum
The summer is a time of reflection, new inspiration and gaining more knowledge, for instance in the Vitra Museum, with the exposition Dubai Next from Rem Koolhaas.
For some time we have contacts with a design studio from Milan and young Italian designers. In Milan ideas have been exchanged about typical Italian design, sustainable design and the responsibility of designers.
