Research Stream: Symposium
Author: Luke McKenna, Undergraduate Product Design Student, BSc in Product Design and Innovation, Department of Design Innovation, Maynooth University
I believe there is a very common misconception of what product design really is. It is not so much ‘designing a product’, but rather it is ‘identifying a problem’ and ‘providing a solution’, generally through means of design. This discipline has been around since the birth of mankind, from the first people shaping primitive tools and designing fish traps, to forging armour and eventually making bicycles. Although design techniques and manufacturing methods are the best and most efficient they have ever been, there is a vital problem which has not yet been solved – establishing universal accessibility as a compulsory principle of modern product design.
The current prevailing ethos in the design and manufacturing world is still predominantly hostile to the core ideas of universal accessibility. Able-bodied, economically active and generally younger users are primarily considered when designing and manufacturing most modern products such as digital technologies, wearable devices, entertainment systems and so forth. Many private sector companies are reluctant to adopt additional accessibility specifications that they believe will increase the costs of product design, development, testing and manufacturing.
These profit-driven ideologies have not only obstructed the progression of universal accessibility in product design, but have also potentially withheld greater success from the companies themselves – Wouldn’t a company who designs and manufactures universally accessible products have potential to be incredibly successful?
Universally designed products receive increased use and enjoy greater levels of user satisfaction due to their accessible and simplistic nature, future-proof design, and broader appeal. With this in mind, why then would universally designed products be an off-putting concept for manufacturers?
Ronald Lawrence Mace (1942 – 1998) was an American product designer, architect, educator and consultant who coined the term ‘Universal Design’ (UD).
Mace defined it by saying, “Universal design is design that is usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” After contracting polio as a child, Mace became a lifelong wheelchair user. As a person with a disability, Mace used his passion for architecture and product design alongside his tireless advocacy to push for legislative change in his native North Carolina, USA, and establish the first legal standards for accessible buildings and houses. He established the Center for Universal Design (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Center’), at the School of Design at North Carolina State University where we worked as a research professor.
The Center was said to be “a leading national and international resource for research and information on universal design in housing, products, and the built environment.”
As of now, the Center is not currently active due to lack of federal funding – this, unfortunately, is evidence of persistent disregard of UD in modern times.
Mace’s hard work and advocacy on UD eventually contributed to an international definition of the concept being enshrined within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Convention), Article 2 on ‘Definitions’: “Universal design” means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. “Universal design” shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed.
The European Commission’s Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021 – 2030 advocates “mainstreaming the Universal Design approach for better accessibility and provision of reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities into all actions.” This builds upon the Commission’s emphasis on promoting the ‘Design for All’ (DFA) approach to product design so that manufacturers will “design, develop and provide products, goods and services so that they can be accessed, understood and used by the widest range of users, including persons with disabilities”.
To make enabling and accessible products, it is a designer’s duty to alter traditional approaches to design methods that are disabling for older people and persons with disabilities. With a UD and DFA-oriented design process, not only would new production lines and systems be invented, but products already manufactured at scale would have necessary solutions applied to them, saving manufacturers from entirely new production requirements, and therefore costs.
There is no denying that this throws up some practical challenges for product designers.
However, with extensive research in service design, modern technologies, 3D CAD software, AI and a holistic DFA ethos, it is not only practical, but economical to provide a globalised society with a ubiquitous and comprehensive standard of UD for accessible products, devices, and services.
Abiding by UD also ‘future-proofs’ products and services as they can be designed to accommodate diversifying populations (ageing, disability and multicultural groups), evolving regulations (accessibility laws and guidelines), sustainability (adaptable, long-lasting materials and robust designs) and lifelong usability of products for people irrespective of their age and ability.
By generating the necessary political will and social advocacy, like Ronald Lawrence Mace, it is possible to develop new policies and legal standards for UD and DFA measures in product designs and related services, and set new high quality universal accessibility standards for the manufacturing industry at large.
At the start, I said that the purpose of a product designer is to identify a problem and provide a solution. The problem has been identified; it is now time for us to solve it. Striving for inclusivity, accessibility, usability, and for the good of all. The time for change in design has come. The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.
