Our commitment to inclusive project delivery

• What is inclusive design? Inclusive design aims to craft products, services, and spaces that everyone, regardless of age, ability, or other differences, can access and use effectively.

• We know that more inclusive teams come up with different ideas because people can bring their own experiences, ways of thinking and perspectives to the table. That’s why we are guided by a 70% rule, where we aim to ensure that no group or level has more than 70% of the same gender, nationality, or age group.

• Talking about inclusivity from a user point of view, it also starts right at the beginning of the process – from defining user groups and understanding their different needs, to reimagining their life moments, the focus is on continually bringing their voices into the project.

Inclusive design aims to craft products, services, and spaces that everyone, regardless of age, ability, or other differences, can access and use effectively. Our work across the Public and Health Sectors has been formative to our inclusive approach, giving us the chance to collaborate with these organisations to embed inclusivity into all aspects of product and service design. We are also able to share these approaches in the private sector, where the value of inclusive design may be less understood. And as we see time and again, it is not only a way to improve customer experience, it makes business sense too.

If you want to create inclusive products and services, however, it is best to begin by assembling inclusive teams to work on them and designing for inclusion at the outset. At Zühlke, we firmly believe that when you start a project with this spirit wired into the process itself, you are able to make it a meaningful part of the outcome too – and that is not only important to our clients but also key to our approach as an employer.

For this article, we spoke to three of our team members involved in delivering projects to get a sense of their experience of this intention in practice: Brian Best (Lead Business Analyst), Li Gardner (Principal UX Consultant), and Nicky Riley (Lead Project Manager). As specialists in different fields, they brought a range of perspectives to bear, helping to show where the focus lies for us now, and what the future holds in this space too.

Why Be Inclusive?

It is useful to define what we mean by ‘inclusivity’ when it comes to the work we do at Zühlke, and why it is something important for us to strive for. For a start, Nicky explains that it entails going beyond just considering diverse teams. She says:

'We need to be creating an environment where everyone feels safe to share ideas, raise issues and know their opinion is welcomed.'

As Li talks about what this means in terms of our delivery, there are some parallels. She explains that there is also a focus on the impact on each individual who will ultimately use something we create. “To be inclusive is to put diverse users at the centre of product and service creation, so we also need to be aware of the Experience Bias, which is when we take our perception to be the objective truth,” she says. More than this, Li links it to our purpose as an organisation too. She believes that if we want to positively influence society through what we do, then this approach is fundamentally how we would achieve it. Or as Brian puts it,

'Leaving people out because you have not thought of doing things in a certain way just is not very good business.'

From Intention to Action

We know that more inclusive teams come up with different ideas because people are able to bring their own experiences, ways of thinking and perspectives to the table. That’s why we are guided by a 70% rule, where we aim to ensure that no group or level has more than 70% of the same gender, nationality, or age group. But how do we unlock the potential of a diverse team at Zühlke?

Nicky says that it starts when you start collaborating as a team and take the time to build an inclusive culture from the outset. She gives an example of a tool she likes to use at this early stage called a ‘User Manual of Me’ where members can share how they work most effectively, including aspects like how they like to receive feedback, how they prefer to be communicated with and what motivates them. This team conversation, where individuals share what will and will not help them work to their best, helps everyone in the team understand people's differences and how we can accommodate them to be a more successful team.

Another similar process Nicky mentions is the collective creation of a ‘Team Charter’ which outlines the ways the team has agreed to work together, giving the group the chance to consider how they can be inclusive to all its members. These are both simple things to implement, but she has seen them have significant results. “It helps us to create trust and makes sure that we are able to have the healthy conversations and debate that we need as part of the process of building good products and services,” she explains.

As a Business Analyst, Brian brings a first-hand perspective on what it is like working within an inclusive team. He has adult ADHD, so he goes about his work in a slightly different way to colleagues, but the culture here enables him to leverage this as a strength. 'I have developed coping mechanisms for my own use, but it turns out they have a positive impact on others,' he shares. One example he gives is his approach to story mapping. He explains that he often finds existing approaches to documentation confusing because they assume an advanced level of context, so to process them for his own understanding he makes his own step-by-step alternatives, including additional detail and layering on information. This kind of approach is not only helpful for him, it means he's able to get concepts across to his team and clients in a more accessible way too. Importantly, the inclusive approach at Zühlke allows him to bring these kinds of ways of working to his teams so that everyone can benefit.

Applying Inclusive Design

Talking about inclusivity from a user point of view, Li explains that much like when forming teams, it also starts right at the beginning of the process. From defining user groups and understanding their different needs, to reimagining their life moments, the focus is on continually bringing their voices into the project.

Li goes on to explain how as an extended part of this approach, representatives of diverse user types are sometimes invited to sessions where they go through an ideation framework to co-create solutions together. This co-design process includes a few rounds of rapid silent sketches, group brainstorming, and developing an elevator pitch. “Users will often tell us how much they enjoy the process because they are finally involved in designing what they are going to use,” Li says.

Inclusivity in Practice

One example of success stories by applying inclusive design is the COVID-19 app Zühlke has developed. It was downloaded by more than 22 million people – and analysis from leading science journal, Nature, estimates that it averted 1 million cases during its first year. This corresponds to 44,000 hospitalisations avoided and 10,000 deaths prevented.

Li explains that the project began with engaging with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities, including age, economic situation, geographic location, language and race.
 

“Together with our partner teams we studied their pain points, analysed all the insights to identify common patterns and differences, and then designed the user interactions, taking into account which needs could be met and which barriers to overcome,”

Li continues. She also mentions that the team conducted various types of testing on a regular basis, assessing the effectiveness of certain features and checking accessibility with neurodiverse and disabled users.

Looking to the Future

To Nicky, considering inclusivity is only going to become increasingly important. That is not to say it is without its challenges, however. She mentions that it can sometimes be difficult to hold to these principles with the reality and pressures of project delivery. Building inclusivity into services or products can become less important when project timelines or budgets are tight. 'We do have experts in this area at Zühlke, and we can help more organisations understand not only the ethical but also the business value of inclusive services and products, so I would like to see the principle of inclusion a higher priority in the private sector, as we see in the Public sector,' she concludes.

This need to be advocates for inclusion is a sentiment Brian echoes. 'It should not be the trimming at the end of a project; it is the concrete in the foundations,' he states. He believes the positive outcomes can be exponential too. 'It is not only the people you are aiming for that can benefit – it can go way broader than that.' While he acknowledges that we are not achieving this perfectly every time, getting it right is a goal Zühlke continually strives towards. And each step brings us closer to realising our true potential for impact on the world.