MISMATCH:

HOW INCLUSION SHAPES DESIGN

[BY] KAT HOLMES

[ABOUT]

Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes examines how design decisions often unintentionally exclude people by prioritizing a narrow definition of the “average” user. Holmes reframes exclusion not as a user’s failure to adapt, but as a design problem - one that can be solved through inclusive thinking. By centering human diversity and acknowledging mismatch as a signal for improvement, the book positions inclusion as a driver of better, more resilient design rather than a constraint.

[Reading]

John R. Porter’s bedroom would make any die-hard gamer feel right at home. Among the personal computers, beyond the Run Lola Run movie poster, across from a MakerBot busily extruding plastic threads into an unidentifiable widget, is a large black pegboard. The kind of board my grandfather used for hanging hammers and wrenches in his garage. Mounted on the pegboard, like hunting trophies, are dozens of video game controllers dating back decades. Among them is the 1977 nostalgia-inducing Atari Video Computer System controller, with its joystick and single red button. Hundreds of millions of people used this kind of controller to play the legendary game Pong. Next in line is the 1985 iconic block-shaped Nintendo Entertainment System controller with two buttons and a T-shaped directional pad that players used to maneuver through Super Mario Bros, one of the most popular video games of all time. Symbiotically, video games and their controllers grew more complex in the 1990s as home video games grew in popularity. Porter’s pegboard features the contoured dual grips of the 1994 Sony PlayStation gamepad and a few hefty Microsoft Xbox controllers released since 2001, adorned with buttons, sticks, triggers, and a directional pad.

Porter ties his experience with gaming to everyday life, making insightful connections between play and inclusion. Here are some excerpts from a conversation with Porter to guide our exploration of the second element in the cycle of exclusion:

>> WHO MAKES IT? <<

Why did you build a Wall of Exclusion?

I keep these here to remind me of all the assumptions that we, as designers, make about people. The design of these products clearly signals that gaming is for some people, and not for others. A game controller says, "This is for you" or "This is not for you." This is true for everything we design. We make assumptions about who our users are, and we design for those assumptions. And if you don't fit those assumptions, then you are excluded.

"We make assumptions about who our users are, and we design for those assumptions."

— John R. Porter

What happens when designers make assumptions about people?

All of these games are based on a broad assumption that you’ll be using your fingers and your hands to interact. And for me, that is almost entirely moot. I have some physical mobility that I can use to move my wheelchair, but everything I do in the digital realm is mediated through other avenues of interaction, primarily speech. Whenever I’m using technology, I use speech to control it, even though it was never designed to work with speech. It’s not just that a game isn’t optimized for my abilities. It was made without ever even considering the possibility that someone would need to interact with it in the ways that I do. That places the onus on me to figure out all these workarounds. For gamers with disabilities, we have to spend as much time figuring out how to play a game as we do actually playing.

How does a designer make something inclusive?

Games that only allow a user to play in one way, that have a very prescriptive notion of who a player is, those tend to be the ones that are the least accessible. But games that allow more freedom and flexibility tend to be a lot more inclusive. I often like to point out World of Warcraft as one of the really great inclusive games. There are players who don’t have the motor ability to interact fast enough to engage in combat. But I know people with disabilities who have played this game for years. They have all of their crafting skills maxed out because, for them, the game isn’t about doing quests. The game is economics. The game is building a leather-working empire and making gear that people can buy from them. And I don’t know if anyone at Blizzard Entertainment would say that they envisioned that as a viable play style. Nevertheless, they built an inclusive system.

What’s the role of gaming in your life?

I still remember the day that my uncle Mike came over to give me Final Fantasy VII as a 12th birthday present. It was my favorite game, even though I’d never played it. I’d watched him play it, but was never able to join in. I was able to play games until I lost the ability to use game controllers around the age of 10. For me, gaming was becoming a spectator sport. My uncle once spent an entire afternoon trying to tape little pieces of wood onto his controller to make it work for me. When the efforts were unsuccessful, I told him not to worry about it. Final Fantasy just wasn’t for me. “Sure it is,” he reassured me as he picked up the modified controller, “we just need to stop this thing from getting in the way.” I don’t just play. I work to figure out how to play. It’s figuring out how to participate in societal moments. Which is a burden sometimes. I think of it as ametagame that I play in all areas of my life. It’s a puzzle to be solved and shared.

How is gaming shifting from exclusion to inclusion?

There is a natural inclination to use yourself as a shortcut to make assumptions about the people that you’re designing for. And I think that’s especially rampant in the world of game design. Historically, the industry has been incredibly homogenous. Games have been created by people who feel like they are never going to be different from what they are in that moment. Many of them feel like they are the only users who really need to be considered. And that’s changing, which is good. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the increasing diversity amongst game designers is happening concurrently with the release of more inclusive games. I think those two things go together.

"Increasing diversity amongst game designers is happening concurrently with the release of more inclusive games. I think those two things go together."

— John R. Porter

[Response]

The reading provides a frank and interesting perspective on inclusive design. It addresses one of the most important questions that we as designers ask ourselves: how do we create solutions and experiences that are accessible to all the different types of people that exist in society? The reading highlighted how innovation in design and particularly inclusivity in design can come from not reinventing the wheel but simply exploring a different way the wheel can be used. In digital experiences, it is often easy to exclude sections of the target audience simply because of their disabilities. Simply put, it is an easy approach design as we have always done, where we know the screens we are designing for, so we do not consider the way that screen is being used.

I, as a designer, often fall into the hole of designing for myself, thinking that because my perspective of a south asian "minority" covers many perspectives that are often neglected, it is easy to ignore other perspectives, so diverse perspectives are imperative when designing for humans. Additionally, it should not be a limitation to be restricted to certain individuals simply because of the technology used to access it. Similar to in John Porter’s life, there are always workaround solutions that we as designers can employ to make something have better functionality for our users.

"Thinking that because my perspective of a south asian "minority" covers many perspectives that are often neglected, it is easy to ignore other perspectives."

— Zarah Yaqub

However the part of the story that was additionally striking was the story of Carpenter’s uncle attempting to modify game controllers for him, the burden of design and modification should never fall on the users, it should fall on us as designers to create the workarounds and reinventions, that is the true meaning of inclusive innovation when we as designers decide to create we must consider all who use our creations not just those that look like us. And when we really think about it, we all have our own walls of exclusion, the walls that tell us no or that we can’t be somewhere or can’t do something, so it's even more important to raise those voices that are not heard as often.