As part of our Future Led breakfast panel series, we held an event in partnership with Brisbane Art Design (BAD) and the Museum of Brisbane. At this event, Luli chatted to Liquids Fiona Armstrong, about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and why it makes us better designers.
The conversation touched on some of the issues you would expect (unconscious bias and avoiding box-ticking, for example) and also covered designing better solutions, honest leadership, measuring impact, and supporting a diverse workforce.
'Design for the edges'
Theres so much of what we take for granted in society today that actually came about through inclusive design, Fiona said.
Theres a real pressure sometimes to design for the majority but actually designing for those edge cases, those people in the minority, youre designing something thats truly inclusive it works for everybody.
"Design for the edges and youll find a better solution for everybody.
Over the course of Fionas 20-year career, she has spent time working with communities including older Australians, refugees, and victims of crime, and in areas such as mental health and bereavement.
She told the audience that designing inclusive solutions required more than hearing a range of lived experiences it needed to understand how people were thinking, feeling and how they made decisions.
