Inclusive design for Everyone: How to create fair access and shared experience

Why inclusive design should expand access, dignity, and participation

We hear the phrase ‘for everyone’ everywhere these days. Design is no exception.

But the phrase contains a real paradox . The usual advice is the opposite: narrow your audience down. Be specific, otherwise, your design may end up wandering without specific direction.

So what does design for everyone actually mean?

What often goes unstated here is this: experience and access. In other words, it’s about designing fair access and shared experience. While a product’s color, language, and aesthetic should be distinct and specific to the audience, the experience of using it should not exclude anyone, unless there is a compelling safety reason.

User experience is made up of many stages: the first encounter, the moment of use, the ending, and even what happens after. People may feel differently at each of these stages, but the range and quality of access should be fair.

Design for everyone is not a vague marketing slogan. It is an approach to design that aims to create the best possible experience for people with different physical, cognitive, and emotional conditions.

Standard | Re-evaluating the Standard

Design for all should start by re-thinking existing standards. Who were products, services and spaces originally designed for? Who was the default person in the room when these were built?

If you look around the environments where we live, most things from home appliances to public spaces are designed around the body and behavior of a standing, able-bodied person.

We met someone who mostly lives seated on the floor because of rheumatoid arthritis. She found it very difficult to use many home appliances in her house. How about playgrounds? They are also designed for children who can move around on two feet. Museums are primarily for those who can see.

Design should start with questioning our default standard we have taken for granted. Who has been missing from our definition of the user? How would this work for someone using one hand? What about users with limited mobility in both hands? For someone who can’t walk independently or can’t see or hear?

Most spaces have been built for people who can stand and move around. ©Missionit

Hidden | The hidden barriers

We often fall into the trap of thinking accessibility is only about physical features such as stairs, ramps, wider doorways, or braille. So, the conversation has also been shaped around visible disabilities or visible constraints.

In reality, however, there are many people who live with non-visible conditions such as ADHD, panic disorder, dyslexia, or trauma. These conditions are not immediately apparent.

So, what should design do here?

A lot of people we interviewed explicitly said that psychological barriers can be more difficult than physical ones. In this sense, design for the unseen could mean two things: designing for the users with non-visible conditions and designing for the invisible experience. Design needs to learn how to respond to these two aspects.

For example, a place may be technically accessible and still feel unwelcoming. A service may function properly and still make people feel exposed or out of place.

Helsinki’s Oodi Library is often referenced for lowering psychological barriers. Its messaging conveys ‘Everyone has the right to be here,’ which helps people feel welcome. ©Samu Eve

Participation | closing the experience gap

Participation should be at the heart of everything we do. In participatory design, I focus on closing the experience gap, which is the distance between the designer’s intention and the user’s reality.

We all come from different backgrounds. Someone who relies on sound experiences a room very differently from someone who relies on sight. If designers don’t invite these users into the development process, that gap only becomes wider. Inclusive design isn’t about the final outcome. It’s about the process of co-creation itself.

Participation closing the experience gap, we all come form different backgrounds.Someone who relies on sound exeaeaeve

There is an experience gap between designer and user, and one of the important goals of design is to close that gap. ©Missionit

Common | finding the common ground

Design for everyone is not about creating separate designs but making design usable by as many people as possible. For example, we should be thinking about how older adults and younger generations can share and use the same space together.

If this is not approached carefully, we may unintentionally reinforce the division we claim to address. For instance, if an app is built with no consideration of older adults, it will deepen the digital divide between generations. If we create a separate playground only for disabled children, it may reinforce binary thinking about ‘disabled’ and ‘non-disabled.’

Ultimately, the goal is to find common ground across users. In this sense, I’d like to reiterate that one important direction in design is not to pursue what is special, but to pursue what is ordinary and shared..

Whether a child has a disability or not, they all love to climb and hide. What we need in design is not ‘special,’ but ‘ordinary’ equal experience. ©Missionit

Choice & agency | the goal of inclusive design

Why does any of this matter? Because people have a right to choice, and a right to agency.

By agency, I do not mean an abstract philosophical debate about free will. I mean the desire to live independently, to work, to move, to participate, to decide, and to shape one’s own daily life.

Inclusive design protects that desire. It gives people the freedom to choose. It preserves the dignity of doing things by oneself. As the blind architect Chris Downey puts it, accessible design is a positive act that makes life more vivid. It opens the door to beauty, joy, confidence, and participation.

If we care about accessibility and sustainability, design is not a finished result, but it’s a process continuously evolving. ©Missionit

For a long time, design has been treated as a finished object. But from the perspective of accessibility and sustainability, it’s no longer a finished result, but a continuous process and a commitment to keep expanding. And perhaps that is the most honest definition of design for everyone.

All my articles are grounded in real-world insights drawn from recent projects. Each piece is carefully crafted by me and thoughtfully edited by Andy Taekhyung Kim in the UK. By reading and sharing my stories, you’re supporting a genuine human effort to make the world a more inclusive place.

If you’re interested in insights on inclusive UX and accessibility, particularly in South Korea, the UK, or Southeast Asia, feel free to reach out (hello@missionit.co). I’d love to connect.