The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at London’s Royal College of Art is one of the world’s premier research centers for inclusive design, focusing on three areas: Age & Ability, Health Care, and Work & City. Here, the center’s cofounder and director, Professor Jeremy Myerson, talks about changing trends in his field.
Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.
