Designing for Every Mind
TIMELINE : ~4 WEEKS
Vision & Strategy
Through collaboration with people with disabilities, create a Diversity and Inclusion Guidebook focused on cognitive inclusion. This guidebook is to help creators understand how to design products and services that accommodate the diverse ways people think. By learning about cognitive exclusion, teams can build solutions that are not only more clear, accessible and customer-focused, but also more innovative and impactful.
The Problem
Organizations struggle to design experiences that adapt to diverse ways of thinking. Too often, technology drives decisions instead of human needs, limiting inclusivity, emotional connection, and functionality. Microsoft was no exception. Experiences should start with people to feel meaningful and work well for everyone.
The Solution
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Create a guidebook for designing with cognitive diversity in mind
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Help people understand why cognitive diversity and accessibility matter, how to identify cognitive demands, and how addressing them creates better experiences for more people
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Develop an easy-to-use, flexible, scalable and adaptable process
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Provide practical examples and tools for inclusive decision-making
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Provide step-by-step guidance for teams to design experiences that adapt to different emotional, functional, and cognitive needs
What I Did (in collaboration with key stakeholders and designers)
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Conducted research to understand diverse cognitive needs
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Led visual design for inclusive experiences
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Collaborated directly with people with disabilities to inform decisions
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Worked closely with teams across Microsoft to implement inclusive solutions
The Outcome
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Guidebook is used globally across Microsoft, helping teams apply inclusive design in real projects
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Serves as a teaching tool in colleges and universities to train future designers on cognitive diversity and accessibility
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Products became more usable and accessible for people with diverse cognitive needs
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Customers experienced interactions that felt more intuitive and human-centered
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Design decisions better addressed real human needs, reducing friction and confusion
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Inclusive design led to experiences that work for a wider audience, improving satisfaction
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Teams were able to create solutions that anticipate and adapt to different ways of thinking and environmental demands