Inclusive Design Overview
I started building an Inclusive Research practice inside of Electronic Art’s IT. Much of my motivation comes from a desire to build better products that serve the needs of more customers. Who better than to develop games for other people with disabilities than people with disabilities?
To be clear, it’s one thing to swing open the door and ask people to come in and it’s a whole other thing to change from the inside out. And for technology companies this begins at a DNA level or code level with the tools and internal products that are made. I looked around at the game creation tools and employee experience and realized that much of what we were using was designed with a narrow user base in mind.
We started with auditing our tools to see if they met a broad range of disabilities requirements. At the same time, we invited our global employees and employee research groups into the design process. Our research is used as data repository is leveraged throughout the company for product development and employee communication efforts. With luck, that the young boy using a screenreader to play games or the little girl playing Sims in Iran can someday not only work at Electronic Arts but also thrive.
Problem Statement
Today, we do not have a formal process for using Inclusive Design in IT. Not only does this exclude people and prevents products from realizing their full potential—in the same way it can for consumer products—this problem may actually prevent underrepresented groups from reaching career goals, maintaining work velocity and delivering games that people love.
XD IT can deliver Inclusive Design guidelines that will help in building more accessible employee experiences and game creation products that can open up opportunities for underrepresented groups so they too can thrive here at EA.
Rational
We lose money.
15% of the world’s population has a form of disability.
By creating more accessible games, game publishers and developers also reach a bigger audience as the community of people with disabilities comprise a relatively high percentage of gamers.
*https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability
2. People without impairments want accessibility options.
60% of players for Assassin's Creed: Origins turned on subtitles.
Over ⅓ of the players for Uncharted 4 use the one-handed control option
95% of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey players left subtitles on.
3. We lose out on talent that can bring better insight into mismatched human interactions.
92% of people with impairments play video games*
*https://www.game-accessibility.com/documentation/around-92-of-people-with-impairments-play-games-despite-difficulties/
**https://www.polygon.com/features/2014/8/6/5886035/disabled-gamers-accessibility
Summary
Inclusive Design is more than just a practice. It means shifting the way that one thinks about design and research. This shift is awarded with better ideas and better products so it’s something we want to take root at EA on a DNA level which means starting with code.
Purpose & Goal
Start an Inclusive Design effort inside of IT starting with Research. Develop a framework and guidelines to leverage for research projects and extend to making more products accessible.
Approach
Gain a micro view to compare with People Analytics data to understand the current state of inclusivity and the employee experience so we can help develop more relevant digital experiences.
Look for ways to collaborate with other employees and groups within EA with inclusion and diversity goals.
Methodology
Distill the Web Accessibility Guidelines into digestible content for Design and Engineering teams to use for building code for the Design Component Library.
Run 1:1 interviews with 30 to 40 international employees + conduct focus groups with members in the erg programs (Beat, Aspire, Wut, etc.) to understand friction points in employee lifecycle.
Outcome
Created a task force with other inclusive design leaders across the company.
Developed easy to use accessibility guidelines that plugged into engineerings process.
Created an editorial style guide for varying groups to create content that considered people who spoke English as a second language, neurodivergent people and other underrepresented groups.
Projects
IT Design System
Partnered with engineering to explore ways of following accessibility best practices into their development process.
Proteus
Used employee interview data across our global offices to design a safer post-Covid office experience
Game Creation
Audited Game Creation products for accessibility.
Talent Acquisition
Found opportunities for digital recruitment e.g. interview neurodivergent people to design a better application process.
EA Events
Used feedback from interviews and user testing to make recommendations for product features. Interviewed stakeholders to create a journey map for virtual and on-site events.
FIFA21
Interviewed global players and audited the site for accessibility best practices.
Team
Faith McGee (Research Manager), Katie Domines (Researcher), YiJu Chang (Researcher), Kristen Hickman (Researcher), Leah DeVito (Researcher) and Michael Edwards (Designer)