Centre for Business Innovation 2012 Page 1

Second European Inclusive Design

for Competitive Advantage Consortium (ID-2)

Introduction

The Centre for Business Innovation (CfBI) is an independent organisation based in Cambridge, UK.

The CfBI runs Consortium programmes for leading companies across Europe seeking to benefit from

a shared programme of work which addresses a key business issue, having the potential to

significantly increase revenues or reduce costs.

Inclusive Design (Universal Design in the USA) is about designing mainstream products and services

that are usable by the greatest possible percentage of the population, without special adaption.

The Opportunity

There are already 130 million people over fifty years old in the European Union – by 2020 one in two

European adults will be over this age. The demographic change of an ageing population brings a

major opportunity for companies to develop products and services that better meet the needs of this

growing and affluent sector. But designing products that this population loves to use is not easy.

The First Inclusive Design Consortium

To address this challenge the CfBI ran the First Inclusive Design for Competitive Advantage

Consortium (ID-1) during 2010/11. Members included the BBC, Roche, Bayer Schering, Nestlé, Marks

& Spencer, Bosch & Siemens, the University of Cambridge and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Consortium held its launch meeting in Cambridge,

followed by meetings around Europe as guests of

Consortium members. Members learned the strategic

value of Inclusive Design and how to apply practically the

very latest inclusive tools and techniques to enhance

competitive advantage within their businesses.

Following the successful completion of ID-1 we have been

working actively with members to integrate and roll out

Inclusive Design within their organizations. First products

using the new Inclusive Design techniques are in development and one of the largest member

companies has already placed Inclusive Design on its corporate agenda at the core of its forward

business strategy. This achievement is testimony to the value delivered through the Consortium.

Launch of the Second Consortium

The success of ID-1 has led us to plan the launch of a second Consortium (ID-2), which will start

around April 2012 and run for one year. This will take a similar course to ID-1, benefiting from the

experience gained from running the first group.

The programme will include five one-day business meetings,

preceded by networking dinners at memorable venues.

Meetings will include tutorials covering key elements of the

Inclusive Design process together with group workshop

sessions to apply what we learn.

There is a full set of deliverables for each member, including

presentation material, reference books, software tools and

simulators, plus appliances to simulate impairments in vision

and manual dexterity (see picture over the page).

Centre for Business Innovation 2012 Page 2

Second European Inclusive Design

for Competitive Advantage Consortium (ID-2)

We are now seeking leading companies from across Europe to become members of ID-2.

Consortium membership will be limited to a maximum of twelve companies and the programme will

benefit any organisation whose products or services are used by consumers in their daily lives.

Expert Partner – University of Cambridge Engineering Design Centre

In both these Consortia we are working closely with the renowned Engineering Design Centre (EDC)

at the University of Cambridge to apply new Inclusive Design techniques they have developed to

enhance competitive advantage for companies in the Consortia.

One example EDC technique is Exclusion Audits, which allow us to

measure the proportion of a target population that will be excluded

from using a particular product, or will find it difficult and frustrating

to use. This measure can be related directly to the bottom line in

terms of missed sales and potential customer complaints. We can

re-run the audit on an inclusively designed solution to yield a

quantitative measure of the improvement in usability, and hence

sales potential and customer satisfaction of the better design.

Use of Exclusion Audits allows a closed loop to be formed between features (and their cost),

potential sales volumes and after sales costs. This greatly improves the accuracy of ROI calculations

and eases the challenge of selecting features that the market will value.

The EDC is also now ready to apply its recent work on 'multiple

minor impairments', which allows account to be taken of real-

world abilities in the population. For example, ageing often

leads to some degradation in eyesight, hearing, cognitive ability

and dexterity, but most older people are not blind or deaf.

With up half the adult population expected to fall into this

category by 2020, there is both a social need and a substantial

commercial opportunity to increase product differentiation and

market share by designing for diversity.

The subtlety of designing inclusively is that it isn't obvious to the customer – the best inclusive

products don't shout that they are for older people or those with reduced abilities. They are just

seen by most people to be good products that are a delight to use.

Joining the Consortium

Membership of the Consortium costs just £10k (ten thousand GBP) for a full one-year programme

including the five business meetings, research reports, Inclusive Design aids, software simulators and

project support. With costs shared amongst all Consortium members this is a highly cost-effective

way of moving forward an Inclusive Design agenda. A full Prospectus for the Consortium is available

upon request.

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Contact:

Rob Morland

Director, Inclusive Design Programme

Centre for Business Innovation

"Creating Collaborative Communities"

Registered in England and Wales Number 06839754. Registered Office: St Andrews House, St Andrews Road, Cambridge CB4 1DL, United

Kingdom. VAT Number: GB 971 8593 71

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e: rob.morland@cfbi.com

m: ++44 7775 918263

w: www.cfbi.com