On Universal Design

When I talk to people about Universal Design… the questions I have encountered and the answers I had for them, sample a few:
Q: It is Idealist
A: It is good to be idealist in inception to achieve a solution which is close to it.
Q: Will it work in India
A: Everything works in India
Q: You cannot bring any change in this country
A: UD is about bringing Incremental Change
Q: Is UD for disabled people
A: UD is about inclusion and harnessing assistive technology for all
Q: Isn’t UD fundamental to design thinking and practice
A: Yes UD is fundamental design process which business needs to align with because design most often is driven by popular needs and audience.
Q: Ok what is it then
A: It’s a Practice
Q: We (India) are condemned to be Universal (!)
A: Let there be the syrup bottle cap that is easy to open
Q: People are indifferent, undisciplined
A: Design to Discipline will be an attribute of UD
Q: It cannot be applied to all products
A: Maybe, but 50% of users are being missed out while conceiving most products, the older, women, children and the disabled.
Q: How does Business benefit from UD
A: From meaningful discriminators and value to customers

The other day, while driving to work my colleague very simply asked me, what is universal design? We were then at a traffic signal, I pointed her to a middle aged couple on a motor cycle where the slightly heavy built lady in a slippery synthetic sari was sitting side ways, precariously on the bike and said, “this bike design has not considered nearly 40% of its users, sari guard is only an afterthought but if the design attributes considered at conception had included the 40% she represents, it is universal design to put it simply “. The bike was visualized and designed for the young male not considering the usage patterns in India by many couples of all ages, etc, it can still be designed as desirable and sexy for the young by including the requirements for the 40%.

This is one of the many common sights in India.

Today it is ‘fitting to the existing’ habit of the people who are adaptive, accommodating, forgiving, uncomplaining consumers, unfamiliar with systemic design. Looking at the future, the scenario - populous congested spaces, literacy variance, migration, lifespan health, half the population that is going to live in urban areas, technology penetration, etc: Such a scenario calls for Universal design approach towards products, spaces and services to make them comprehendible and usable in a localized cultural context.
From the user side universal design approach as I envisage would broadly cover two aspects: one, the lifespan which covers all the aspects of human biological growth and circumstantial variances in the man-made environment from childhood to youth, middle and old age of gender, and two, the differently born, their engagement with the man made world.
When one pans the life of individuals, the day to day will uncover all activities they are engaged in, objects they interact with, spaces they are conditioned to and the health conditions that exist. This fish eye lens approach to observing and identifying inconveniences large and small would be a primary phase to universal design way of problem solving for all users of a particular object or space.
I have attempted this approach in the classroom as a primer to UD by giving the students the following exercise: After a short preamble of how design attitude/ practice begins at home, they were asked to look around their home, pick up an object or space used by all (mother/wife, father/wife, brother, sister, toddler, grandmother/father, domestic help/visiting relative from native town/other hypothetical participants/situations) and design/redesign. Home is the micro environment, a reflection of the macro environment outside with a sample user set that exists outside. This exercise reveals to the students the universal design way of doing things and I found this to be a good way to get started.