Your Business Will Fail because You Are Using Restrictive Design

The core of design is to make people feel seen, heard and known.

“I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central. I claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.”

— Toni Morrison

A beautiful hotel room that I cannot shower in because the shower nozzle is too short is not beautifully designed for me. An event that invites me onto the stage but lights me as an afterthought has not thought about my whole experience or how I want to be represented. Artwork that treats people who look like me as a stereotype (or invisible) does not become neutral because it matches the furniture.

“Humans aren’t a resource to be bought, used and discarded — they are the point of the workplace, the life essence of innovation, growth and success.”

— Seth Godin

The core of design is to make people feel seen, heard, and known. That is the work. Not the mood board. Not the rendering. The experience.

Tap a row to see what each word means

Seen

Seen means: I can recognize myself in what you have created.

Heard

Heard means: My experience helped shape it.

Known

Known means: You anticipated something about my life without asking me to leave part of myself at the door.

Your experience is real. It is not universal. Designing from your limited POV means building your limitations and bias into the business and asking everyone else to work around them. Exclusion is a business decision, even when you did not mean to make it.

Shift to design that asks:

Who have we not considered?
Who has to ask for help just to participate?
Who is present in our images but absent from our decisions?
What are we calling an edge case because we have never had to live it?