Dignity and Diversity by Design
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Forget Norms and Deviations. Design for Togetherness Instead.

A toilet sign with a man and a woman. I have highlighted the line between them in red to emphasise the division between them.
Figure 1. A toilet sign with a man and a woman. I have highlighted the line between them in red to emphasise the division between them.

Discussions involving Universal Design often revolve around functions, features or characteristics. But what about feelings and experiences?

In a previous post, I shared how my students brought forward togetherness as something they connected with Universal Design. I was surprised, and pleased, that they described a feeling.

So, what do you have to stop and what do you have to do instead to design for togetherness?

Stop Designing for Norms and Deviations

The dominant worldview with an imagined “normal/typical” person and others deviating from that norm seems remarkably stubborn to dissolve, transform, or move beyond.

Throughout the years, a range of authors have tried to get this message to stick. In 2016, Todd Rose debunked the myth about the average human being. Margaret Mead highlighted human differences by saying, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” Edward Steinfeld has described the circumstances of human activities as “a condition of difference that we all share”.

Everyone is differently different. Your design has to acknowledge and celebrate this.

Two Keys to Design for Togetherness

Here are two keys to how you can support togetherness through participatory design, discourse, and critical practice:

1. Critique Your Categorisations

Stop dividing people into separate, predefined, static categories such as dis/ability, age, or gender (Picture 1). Categorising people into static roles will always feel incomplete, because people inevitably fall outside those frames [1].

The solution lies in shifting what we categorise. Focus on, for instance, functions and situations instead [2, 3]. Stop thinking in terms of norm and deviation. Start from a diversity mindset instead [4]. This shift moves us from designing for imagined people to designing for real human activities.

2. Ensure Meaningful Participation

Create a collaborative environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and lived experiences. This means moving beyond consultation to genuine co-creation.

Ensure participation of persons with a wide range of characteristics and backgrounds. Focus on participation fundamentals, participation ethics and participation practicalities [5].

Design Togetherness to Create Togetherness

My students understood something profound: when we design with togetherness as our goal, we create spaces that actually bring people together rather than sort them apart.

When people participate in designing the spaces, products and services they'll use, togetherness emerges naturally from the process itself. By adopting a more collaborative and dignified approach to design, we can break down barriers, challenge unconscious biases, and create spaces where everyone truly belongs.

Design togetherness yields design supporting togetherness. ‘As simple as that.

This piece builds on concepts from our research into nonclusive design and situation-based categorisation. For detailed academic exploration of these ideas, see the linked papers below.

Links to papers (free to download):

  1. Hedvall, P. O., & Ericsson, S. (2024). From Inclusive to Nonclusive Design – A Shift in Categorisation. In Difference – Sketching, Visualising and challenging Universal Design in Sweden (Vol. 19, pp. 10–30). Design for All Institute of India. http://designforall.in/?mdocs-file=2470.
  2. Hedvall, P.-O., Price, M., Keller, J., & Ericsson, S. (2022). Towards 3rd Generation Universal Design: Exploring Nonclusive Design. Transforming Our World through Universal Design for Human Development, 85–92. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI220824.
  3. Ericsson, S., & Hedvall, P. O. (2024). Situation, Non-categorisation, and Variation—Conveying Nonclusion Through Text and Image. In Difference – Sketching, Visualising and challenging Universal Design in Sweden (Vol. 19, pp. 31–50). Design for All Institute of India. http://designforall.in/?mdocs-file=2472.
  4. Ericsson, S., Wojahn, D., Sandström, I., & Hedvall, P.-O. (2020). Language that Supports Sustainable Development: How to Write about People in Universal Design Policy. Sustainability, 12(22), Article 22. https://doi.org/10/ghrshm.
  5. Johansson, S., Hedvall, P.-O., Larsdotter, M., Larsson, T. P., & Gustavsson, C. (2023). Co-Designing with Extreme Users: A Framework for User Participation in Design Processes. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 25(1), 418–430. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.952.

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