Including Inclusivity in Service Design

The Inclusive Design module is meant to inspire and inform about inclusive design to better dialogue with the complexity of our society, both with a theoretical overview and a practical standpoint, to develop skills and methodologies to create more accessible services and experiences, building, step by step, everyday design practice.

The designer, society observer, and inclusion activist, Antonio Grillo delivered a lecture on this sensitive and urgent topic, in which inspirational moments alternated case study analysis, where students had the opportunity to explore the inclusive design toolkit that is one of the top five best practices for inclusion worldwide.

Specifically, students received an intro about ethics and inclusion, continuing with a focus on the business value of inclusive design, to buster myths. Thus, a relevant slice of the lesson reflected on design and biases and how to be aware and ‘avoid’ them. Finally, students had the chance to do a hands-on inclusive design toolkit, exploring some important case studies.

The lecture on inclusive design proposed the real meaning of inclusion and how to go beyond stereotypes, without ruling out the business value of inclusion. Therefore students gained competencies on how to develop the “rights” skills, tools, and methods to use in their design approach. The lecture ended with a challenging question on what are the skills to be developed to become a “modern” designer.

This lecture allowed students to empathize with diversity, keeping in mind human-centricity. Students learned the basic notion of inclusion and received some first principles to train the fundamental skills to embed in their everyday design practice. Wishing to learn from it, to become better and more inclusive service designers.