Diversity

Or: Inclusivity

Not excluding people unnecessarily from your web service

Support

Support for diversity is currently the worst fault of web sites

Examples:

• Only designed for 800x600
• Only works if you have plugin X
• Only works if you have browser Y
• Defining font sizes in pixels instead of points

If support for diversity of user agents is so poor, what chance other sorts of diversity?

Types of diversity

Diversity (apart from user agents) comes in many forms. For example:

• Psychology
• Nationality/ethnicity
• Culture
• Gender
• Ability

Applications can often be written for a particular sort of user: websites cannot. Your audience may be restricted in nationality, but in little else.

Psychology

Jung developed a theory of psychological types on 4 dimensions:

• Extrovert : Introvert
• Sensing : Intuition
• Perception: Judgement
• Thinking : Feeling

Your psychological makeup affects the sort of interface that you like.

(For more information, do a search for "myers-briggs")

"Sensories" vs "Intuitives"

"When sensories drive to work, they are aware of the birds, the trees, the hills turning green. They notice a cow lowing in the field.

When intuitives drive to work, they watch the tectonic plates, deep in the earth's crust, rubbing together. They run into the cow."

"Sensories" like TV; "Introverts" like radio.

"Sensories" like WYSIWYG interfaces; "introverts" like command lines.

80% of the population are "sensories"; most programmers are "introverts".

(Recommended reading "The Goldilocks Theories" in "Tog on Interface" by Bruce Tognazzini)

Ethnicity and Nationality

These are issues linked to your country or nationality: the money, lengths etc. you think in, the language you speak, how you write your address.

Few websites pay much attention to these issues.

Many sites mix nationality with ethnicity (for instance, using flags as icons to identify languages).

Culture

Culture is orthogonal to nationality: two people in different countries can have the same culture; two people in the the same country can be of different cultures.

Geert Hofstede studied hundreds of IBM employees in 53 countries, and came with 5 dimensions for defining culture:

• Power distance
• Collectivism : individualism
• Femininity : masculinity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Long-term : short-term orientation

These can all affect how you design an interface.

Cultures can be sub-groups: graphic designers are low uncertainty avoidance.

(Recommended reading: Crosscurrents, Aaron Marcus, interactions July 2000)

Ability

One day we will all be disabled. It is amazing that websites even now take so little account of disabilities.

• Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
• Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.
• Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here."
• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
• Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
• Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
• Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
• Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
• Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

See: www.w3.org/WAI

See also: drempelsweg.nl

Conclusion

Support for diversity has to be based on awareness, and sensitising designers. There are no automated tests for diversity.