Including people in design processes, good but how?: Engaging with Inclusive Design Methodology through a digital platform

www.designingwithpeople.org is a new web tool created to support and inspire designers to design more inclusively. Constructing this web tool revealed a number of insights, and some thoughts for the future of inclusive design are embedded in it. This paper describes these insights as the rationale of the web tool. From influencing policy and business practices to repositioning the subject of design, the concept of Inclusive Design is evolving. What are the next steps? What are the specific questions for inclusive design practice? We explore three more layers of the question, each of which is the title of a subsection: How do we start people-centred design process? What are the methods in user researches for design? What are the ethical procedures when designers design with people? The answers to these questions are our attempt to offer multiple perspectives in understanding people and the prompt adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. We hope that designers’ use of multiple perspectives in understanding people will foster the ‘icon’ of Inclusive Design methodology, which in turn will facilitate the formation of empathic relationships that lead to emotional connections among participants in the Design Community of Practice