Engineering for Everyone: A Comprehensive Framework for Inclusive Design

Abstract

STEM fields have progressed in advancements in technology, diverse workforces, and systematic changes made to accommodate inclusivity in engineering and design. While this progress is beneficial, there is a nonnegotiable need for inclusivity and user-centered design methodologies to ensure technologies are resonant with users. Inclusive design requires user needs as integral, not as afterthoughts. To accomplish this, there must be a comprehensive systematic inclusive design framework. In the current study, researchers examined data from prominent engineering, applied computing, or STEM education journals. The works all considered various contexts but proposed frameworks for systematic inclusive design methodologies. To demonstrate the interplay of factors in a more comprehensive framework, this research yielded a proposed model based on the results of this literature review. The proposed model concludes the results of the review with the implementation of each category, not as mutually exclusive factors, but as interdependent aspects to a process for inclusive design. Future research holds promise for the development of thorough, holistic frameworks for inclusive design. The results and proposed framework are a reminder to the engineering community that inclusive design is not an afterthought, but an essential foundation for quality, usable technologies.