Adriana Valdez Young, a renowned design research scholar, is presently leading an innovative project along with her students aimed at fostering inclusivity and accessibility in design. This undertaking involves the redesign of their school bathrooms, transforming these everyday spaces into models for inclusive design.
The project is an excellent opportunity for Adriana’s students to apply inclusive design principles in realistic scenarios, rendering them functional as well as welcoming to the diverse school body. Adriana’s active participation provides them with hands-on insight into the design process. It is her dedication to inclusive design and her belief in the transformative power of creativity that propel this project forward.
Additionally, Young emphasizes the importance of “design for good” and works towards making inclusive design a standard practice. She also strongly advocates for sustainable design, integration of technology, and novel learning methods catering to societal benefits and individual career progression. Her inputs bridge the theoretical and practical aspects of design and underscore the need for constant learning in today’s rapidly evolving design industry.
In partnership with design agency partner Pinar Guvenc, Young is setting new benchmarks with an Inclusive Design graduate course.
Implementing inclusive design in school bathrooms
This course aims to bring a fresh perspective by integrating diverse viewpoints and challenging traditional design processes. It strives to equip future designers with the skills required to create a design landscape that respects and includes all user experiences and caters to societal diversity.
Recognising the increasing demand for consumer-oriented focus in design, Young and Guvenc launched Inclusive Design I and II courses at SVA. The syllabus promotes an inclusive approach that goes beyond just accessibility, advocating for active stakeholder involvement in the design process and understanding the larger socio-economic impacts of design. It invites students to see end-users not merely as consumers but as important participants in the design process, stressing the importance of empathy in design strategy.
The curriculum also requires students to remodel their studio bathrooms, extending their understanding of interaction design. Inclusivity, as emphasized by Guvenc, should aim to truly accommodate everyone, creating universally applicable and meaningful experiences. Such an approach nurtures a broader design perspective in students, preparing them to handle real-world design scenarios in a flexible and innovative manner.
