When I was designing cockpit displays for the Air Force, I knew a great deal about the pilots who were going to be using them: their skill level, visual acuity, and even height ranges. This allowed for the development of concepts that could be customized and evaluated for a specific type of person.

Industrial designers seldom have such a base of knowledge about user characteristics, particularly when it comes to the diverse populations that make up the consumer products market. This situation lends itself to universal design, an approach that strives to make products usable to a broad range of people.

As one might expect, the techniques and principles for designing for all people are not as clearly defined as when designing for one group, but I would like to suggest a couple of ways to get into the mindset of universal design:

Ask Questions: Consider a product that you have worked on recently. If you had never seen such a product before, would you be able to quickly come to terms with it? On the other hand, what if you had used a similar product before – would your expectations be met or violated?

Now re-consider those two questions from the perspective of an individual who does not understand English…who is left-handed…with arthritis…while trying to use the product with another person at the same time…and so on (use your imagination).

Learn By Example: You can observe a lot just by looking. A good starting point is a website about products that are challenging to use ( www.baddesigns.com ). This site discusses a

 wide-range of products and explains problems that people have had with them. It’s simple, entertaining, and educational. A recent piece discusses the troubles that can arise when the control for an automatic water-pump resembles that of a manual pump, leading to confusion about its use. People acted on their expectations by manually "pumping" the lever to get a steady flow of water, instead of simply leaving it at the on position.

Starting to think about universal design is important, but recognizing when to address it in the design process is critical. Making superficial modifications to an existing product may be helpful in making it more accessible, but post-hoc solutions are rarely optimal. For example, Apple, a company known for its emphasis on both industrial design and usability, includes a circular mouse with the iMac computer (apologies for yet another iMac reference), ostensibly for style consistency and product differentiation. Unfortunately, this feature has led many with adult-sized hands to purchase aftermarket covers to improve mouse control. This not only impairs users' experience and thereby attitude towards the product, but may even damage brand identity - wasn’t Apple the mouse company?

Since it is often difficult to know the characteristics of the potential user population, one should strive to design without exclusion. When the population is known, building usability into the design process is essential. Until more products are customizable to personal preferences and capabilities it makes both commercial and common sense to question and learn about the product audience. The information gleaned from this will be invaluable when adaptive products are a reality, but more about that next time.