Building for everyone, with everyone
Product inclusion and equity is the ongoing work of building belonging through our products, by centering the most marginalized voices at every phase of product creation. We at Google are still at the beginning of this journey, and as we continue on it, we’re sharing what we’ve learned to help drive progress in our industry and beyond.
Narrator: In this garage, Larry and Sergey launched Google, with the mission to organize the world,s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Annie Jean-Baptiste (Head of Product Inclusion): We wanna think about product inclusion as a value and something integral to how we do business.
Narrator: Oh, hey, Annie.
Annie: When we think about our mission of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful, it’s the universal piece that we’re leaning into. So no matter where you are in the world, who you love, how much money you make, or what color your skin is, or any of the dimensions that make you who you are, you should feel that Google’s products and services are helpful to you in the moments that matter most. There’s also a huge amount of evidence for the business case for inclusion. When we think about innovation, when we have more voices at the table, it leads for better outcomes for everyone. We also wanna make sure that there’s access and opportunity for those groups that have historically been underrepresented in the product design process. It’s tough to do this on products that are used by billions of people all over the world, but that’s why we have The Three Respects.
Narrator: The Three Respects?
Liane Aihara (Program Manager, Product Inclusion): A few years back, our company mission was complemented with a written set of values called the Three Respects.
Narrator: All right, Liane, let’s hear ’em.
Liane: Respect the user, respect the opportunity, and respect each other. As far as product inclusion goes, the Three Respects mapped to some very simple but really important principles. “Respect the user” means addressing the user and building universally accessible and useful products. A problem isn’t solved if it’s not solved equitably and for everyone. The second respect, “respect the opportunity,” means that there’s a bigger business opportunity when we center on groups that are historically underrepresented, and purposefully expanding the surface area of what we will care about. The resulting product is better for everyone. The third respect, “respecting each other,” means that we create space for these underrepresented users to have a seat at the table as we ideate, design, and then really building in time to actually respond to their feedback, and, you know, not just pushing it off until the next release. It’s especially critical that we carry this perspective throughout our entire development process and continue to refine and learn, even after we ship. We like to call this idea “Building for everyone with everyone.”
Annie: So that’s how product inclusion stems from our company mission and is informed by our company values. But there’s one last piece that’s still missing: the people. Product inclusion is about balancing the business and the human case for inclusion. We wanna make sure that we’re not unintentionally alienating potential users by bringing those voices to the table at key points in the product design process. A key way to do this is to make sure that our teams reflect the diversity of the world around us. But we also wanna make sure that while teams are working toward getting toward that representation, they’re being intentional about bringing voices that have historically been at the margins into the center throughout critical phases in the product design process.
Things to keep in mind when practicing product inclusion and equity
Consider all dimensions of diversity
Keep this (non-exhaustive) list in mind as you build, to ensure you’re considering all identities and how they intersect.
Length of time a person has been alive; stereotypes associated with certain age groups are common
Customs and practices of various social groups
Apparent or non-apparent levels of ability that may limit a person’s activities
Reading level, educational background, or familiarity with academic or professionalized concepts
Related to race, emphasizes identification with cultural, familial, linguistic, national, or other aspects of heritage
Unique conditions, capacities, and needs pertaining to a geographic region like internet connectivity
The way someone identifies within the range of femininity and masculinity
Aspects of a person’s body, clothing, or accessories — e.g., body size, facial hair, or head coverings
Physical, behavioral, and cultural attributes that define a group of people — e.g., Black, Indigenous, or Latino/Latinx
A personal or institutionalized system of faith-based attitudes, beliefs, and practices
Physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to one or more genders
Access to resources, often determining issues of privilege, power, and control
Level of skill and experience with hardware or software
Co-create throughout the process
The people involved in the process shape the finished product. Every team has gaps in representation, and creating a proactive partnership or consulting strategy can help fill them.
Internal communities
Groups that represent the diversity of your company, or any internal groups established to promote inclusion and equity, should be included to inform your process from beginning to end. Participation should always be opt in and employees should be recognized for their contributions.
External partners
Sharing your designs with external consultants can help you avoid pitfalls and provide important perspectives at key moments. It’s important to share early while changes can still be made, and again once the experience is more complete.
Accessibility experts
Experts in accessibility can identify potential usability gaps and opportunities to improve the experience for people with disabilities. These perspectives are helpful throughout but are essential in the prototyping and pre-launch phases.
Ask the right questions at key junctures
All inflection points are important, but asking yourself the right questions during key phases of the design process can help ensure that your team is including diverse perspectives and centering underrepresented voices when it matters most.
1 — Ideate, prepare specifications & design
Questions to ask while focusing on customer journeys, product requirements, initial research, product architecture, workflows, wire frames, design exploration, and data models
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During the first phase of product design, you should do the initial thinking and planning to set yourself up for success later on. Here are some questions to consider:
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Is your team representative of historically marginalized users across multiple dimensions of diversity? If not, whose perspective might be overlooked?
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Who would benefit the most from access to the product? Is this a product they want? Will they be able to use it? (Now is a great time to do market research with historically marginalized users, and on local languages and currencies that your product should support.)
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Have you thought about the unique needs of novice internet users? (These Digital Confidence Design Tools can get you started.)
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If your tool relies on machine learning, what can you do to mitigate the risk of bias? (This collection of resources can help you learn more.)
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Have you discussed this idea with an accessibility expert? (They’ll help you prepare to build with accessibility in mind.)
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Have you shared this idea with any inclusivity-focused co-creators? (Bringing internal communities in early can help you identify issues your team might be missing.)
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What market research will you do during ideation? Are you centering community-based organizations in order to validate your assumptions about what the communities your product will serve actually need and want?
2 — Prototype & evaluate
Questions to ask while focusing on mocks, prototypes, research, content and user experience (UX) writing, visual design, motion design, design iteration, frameworks, and back-end systems and services
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As you’re prototyping, focus on using the dimensions of diversity and insights from the previous phase to build for all audiences. Here are some questions to consider:
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Have you shared insights from the first phase with your full team? (Sharing knowledge throughout the process will help ensure your team is working toward the same goals.)
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Have you built a testing plan to ensure any issues identified in the first phase have been addressed? (Now’s a great time to start a list of testing goals.)
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Are you centering historically marginalized groups through language? (For example, are you including nonbinary pronoun options? See this audience guide for more guidance.)
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Is all your copy clearly understandable for all audiences? (Consider how access to education and literacy levels might affect someone’s comprehension.)
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Are you centering historically marginalized groups through images, graphics, and avatars? (Try creating an image library for quick access to images featuring a range of body types and identities.)
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Is your product being built to include novice internet users? (See our guide to UX for the Next Billion Users and the Next Billion Users’ Usability Checklist to help you build for this group’s unique pain points like low connectivity and rediscovery.)
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Have you considered cultural factors in different parts of the world that might affect usage? For example, if your product uses a calendar, does it account for different religious holidays? If it uses facial recognition, will it work for women wearing a hijab?
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Are you building to ensure not just access but also delight for users with disabilities? (Our developer resources can help you get started.)
3 — Build & user test
Questions to ask while focusing on design quality and polish, front-end development, build testing, release management, and quality assurance
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Now that you have a prototype, you can focus on testing for issues you know about and including a broad range of testers to catch things you don’t. Here are some questions to keep in mind:
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Are you including a range of perspectives in your user testing? (Use the dimensions of diversity to ensure you’re including a range of perspectives and intersections, including people with assistive technology needs, people in a range of locations, and people with a range of tech proficiency levels.)
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Have you tested the accessibility considerations you built for in phase 2? (Here are a few Google resources you can use to test your product’s accessibility.)
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Have you personally tried using a screen reader or other accessibility tools to use your product? (Taking the time to do this can really help you understand the needs of users who depend on these tools.)
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Have you tested the product with slow internet speeds? (You should incorporate latency-reducing features and consider an offline version to reach more audiences.)
4 — Market, measure & monitor
Questions to ask while focusing on marketing, analytics key performance indicators, monitoring, metrics, and feedback
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Once your product has launched, you can assess whether you’ve reached your product inclusion goals and where there’s opportunity to improve. What you learn can be used to inform future iterations. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
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Do the actual audience characteristics include and reflect the audience you set out to reach in phase 1? If not, why not? (Consider access and infrastructure issues limiting product adoption and usage.)
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Do the actual audience characteristics include and reflect a diverse audience across dimensions of diversity? If not, why not?
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Are language and localization features being used as you expected? (Think about what these usages can teach you about your audience.)
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Does the geographic location of the product audience match your intentions? If not, why not? (Think about languages, currencies, and internet access that may be limiting usage regionally.)
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Do all users have a similar and positive experience with the product across dimensions of diversity? If not, why not? (Use this answer to start making a plan to improve your product.)
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Is your marketing attracting a diverse audience of consumers? If not, why not? (See this inclusive marketing toolkit for tips and resources.)
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How is the team continuing to gather product feedback from consumers in an ongoing fashion? (In addition to gathering feedback, make sure you have an ongoing plan to put this feedback into action.)
Product inclusion and equity in action
How inclusive testing helped to improve our camera technology for all
How internal resource groups helped ensure that “the voice of Google” speaks to everyone
Explore more of our belonging work
In Building for Everyone, Google’s Head of Product Inclusion & Equity shares key inclusive design strategies and processes for the tech industry and beyond.
Everyone — no matter their location, language, or digital literacy — deserves an internet that was made for them.
