About us.
We are a consultancy helping companies to realise and experience the benefits of inclusive design.
“Having experienced life as an immigrant woman in the UK and being close to a diverse group of friends made me challenge the definition of a so-called “norm”. This misconception underpins many key decisions leading to unintentional exclusion and missed business opportunities.
Since 2008 I have worked in the design and research field for corporations, heritage brands, agencies and early-stage startups. In the last 6 years, inclusive design has become my passion and focus. I’ve researched the methodologies of the pioneers in this field and tried and tested them in various business environments. This experience allowed me to understand the benefits and ways of effective implementation of inclusive practices.
In December 2020, I founded Inclusive by Design to share my knowledge and experience in this field. These methodologies celebrate human diversity and help organisations to innovate and grow.”
Irina Rusakova
Founder, Inclusive by Design
Our mission.
Today, there is a huge gap between historically marginalised communities and digital businesses. Product teams often build products based on their own requirements or a concept of a “norm”, often informed by inaccurate data.
Our mission is to help businesses, whether big or small, understand the benefits of inclusive design and connect them with their often invisible, diverse groups of customers to innovate and create better products and services for everyone.
Our goals.
Clarify the complexity.
Accelerate the adoption of inclusive design principles and avoid pitfalls by clarifying the complexity of the inclusive design approach. We support teams by sharing tailored, clear and actionable steps towards inclusive research and design practices.
Celebrate diversity.
Our goal is to surface hidden profiles and support an accurate perception of customers' diversity and needs. This is an essential step towards building commercially successful products that welcome, serve and delight a broader group of people.
Spread awareness.
We believe and have evidence that the inclusive design approach is beneficial for people and businesses. We want to share these methodologies with companies and product creators. We also regularly speak on this topic at universities and design meetups worldwide.
Communities.
Since September 2020, we've been building an online community on our Instagram and Medium accounts by sharing the latest methodologies, first-hand experience and practical tips. This network comprises product creators and members of historically marginalised communities who participate in our incentivised research and co-creation sessions.
As we enter the new generation of designing products and services, we also collaborate with the leaders in the industry to learn from each other's experiences and share best practices. Inclusive by Design is a member of multiple communities focusing on Inclusive design and digital accessibility, including Equity Army and Champions of Accessibility Network.
For Equity Army, we had the privilege of leading the co-creation of inclusive research and design principles with 15 incredible inclusive design experts with diverse backgrounds and industry experiences.