Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) - Hardcover

Holmes, Kat

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262038889 ISBN 13: 9780262038881

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2018

Synopsis

How inclusive methods can build elegant design solutions that work for all.

Sometimes designed objects reject their users: a computer mouse that doesn't work for left-handed people, for example, or a touchscreen payment system that only works for people who read English phrases, have 20/20 vision, and use a credit card. Something as simple as color choices can render a product unusable for millions. These mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion. In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion. Inclusive design methods―designing objects with rather than for excluded users―can create elegant solutions that work well and benefit all.

Holmes tells stories of pioneers of inclusive design, many of whom were drawn to work on inclusion because of their own experiences of exclusion. A gamer and designer who depends on voice recognition shows Holmes his “Wall of Exclusion,” which displays dozens of game controllers that require two hands to operate; an architect shares her firsthand knowledge of how design can fail communities, gleaned from growing up in Detroit's housing projects; an astronomer who began to lose her eyesight adapts a technique called “sonification” so she can “listen” to the stars.

Designing for inclusion is not a feel-good sideline. Holmes shows how inclusion can be a source of innovation and growth, especially for digital technologies. It can be a catalyst for creativity and a boost for the bottom line as a customer base expands. And each time we remedy a mismatched interaction, we create an opportunity for more people to contribute to society in meaningful ways.

About this title

About the Author

Kat Holmes, named one of Fast Company's “Most Creative People in Business” in 2017, is founder of Kata, a design firm with the mission of advancing inclusive product development. She served as the Principal Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft from 2014 to 2017, and led that company's executive program for inclusive product innovation. In 2018, Holmes joined Google and continues to advance inclusive development for some of the most influential technologies in the world.

An internationally recognized leader at the intersection of design and technology, John Maeda is Executive Vice President/Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient. He was the 16th President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and before that was Associate Director of the MIT Media Lab. He is a designer, technologist, and catalyst behind the national movement to transform STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to STEAM with the addition of the arts. He is the author of Design by Numbers (1999), The Laws of Simplicity (2006) and Redesigning Leadership (2011), all published by The MIT Press.

Review

Design at its best gladdens our lives, and shapes the way we experience the world―but it can limit that experience, too. Counters may be too elevated for someone in a wheelchair, and playgrounds built solely for able-bodied children a trial for those who can neither run nor climb. Even a magical faucet, built to flow at the wave of a hand, is ill suited for the blind. In Mismatched, a crusading and important look at how design can frustrate and even alienate users, Kat Holmes compels us to be more inclusive. She shows us that design requires not only ingenuity but humility. It must solve problems, yes, but it must also work with those excluded to reimagine and improve their experiences.

―Caroline Baumann, Director, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Edition details

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0262038889
• ISBN 13: 9780262038881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176