Diversity in Design

Socioeconomic

• different social classes
• varying work life
• varying education and experience
• different struggles
• mental illness
• physical illness
• physical handicaps
• home life
• single, married, with children
• different priorities
• money to be spent on design is spent elsewhere
• other responsibilites
• changes interaction with design -
• can they afford the time or costs of good design?

  lower class

  • often cannot afford new technologies,
  • cannot afford to think about it, minimal existence
  • interacts with design very little,
  • potentially more creative and
  • innovative since they have limited
  • resources?

  middle class

  • can usually afford new technology, may only invest in it when needed
  • interacts with design occasionally, as an appreciator and maybe during their free time

  1%

  • can afford anything
  • interacts with design often as a status symbol i.e. getting the new iPhone
  • people of different economic status

Gerodiversity (aging)

Millennials

• enjoys innovation, new technology,
• more change and improvement
• usually can figure out technology fairly quickly
• inherent appreciation of aesthetic and design, minimalistic

Elderly (baby boomers, generation Y)

• affordances must be straight-forward
• straightforward design, appreciation of aesthetics to some extent

Racial

• Ethnicity
• Citizenship
• people born in the country VS raised with the culture in a different country
• language barriers
• miscommunications, idioms
• inherent gaps in culture
• Cultural
• people that come from different backgrounds
• different generations of children
• division between previous generation and current generation