Building design elements for Universal Design

Various urban planning design provisions can be provided for universal design such as-

• Marking at every entrance of the building and over roads to help locate street furnitures for visually impaired people

• Tactile signifier tiles of different patterns to help identify and access information, navigation and ease transportation.

‘A Heartful Building’

Spaces that need special attention while designing for the specially abled-

• Toilet - sufficient width of a toilet cubicle and ease of accessibility

• Corridor - ease of two way movement within a corridor space

• Stairways - provision of gentle slopes with handrails

• Roads and Passages - free of levels and unevenness

• Parking lots - closer and wider access for wheelchair users

• Entrances / exits - Provision of automated sliding doors for handicapped people

Resource Planning and Process of Delivery

Identifying the mission

Preparing a framework

Outlining direct goals and objectives to present at the university level management clearly stating the need and the proposed solutions.

Through the study of various mandatory building regulations, inclusive design standards and policies

Design & Developmen t Creating a committee and a trained design team taking into account management, procurement and planning of design while collaborating with persons with disabilities.

Challenges coming while implementing UDL

• The user doesn’t feel heard.

• Hindrance and harm is caused while the work is going on.

• Users doesn’t know how to operate what to operate and what is being offered.

• Lack of interaction with the users leading to miscommunication and disputes

• Infrastructure and tech failure.

• Safety is breached.

• Budget is not considered and the costing is increased.

Implementat ion Practicing and delivering according to approvals and necessary guidance.

Encouraging innovation and ensuring compliance

Management & Operation Inclusive maintenance and minimal disruptions. Incorporating user feedback through evaluation and continuing the process of enhancing features.

Measures to take while implementing the design

• Know your user and deliver according to the approval.

• Doesn’t affect the existing spaces and users.

• Deliver content through a variety of mediums.

• To engage with the users constantly.

• Take advantage of existing software supports.

• Collaborate and learn from others

• Promote and encourage.

• Don’t go overboard with the budget.

• Keep in mind the safety measures.

Elaboration

Know your user and deliver according to the approval.

Understand the user, what he/she needs and how it need to be delivered.

Seek the users approval while implementing to avoid opposition later.

Doesn’t affect the existing spaces and users.

Making sure the implementation process doesn’t harm the existing infrastructure or doesn’t become a barrier to the user causing inconvenience.

Deliver content through a variety of mediums.

While implementing, it is important that the user knows about your project reduce lack of information post implementation. Delivering your design / content through only one medium is not enough it will not reach to bigger scale. To reach the maximum targeted audience deliver the content through various kind of mediums.

To engage with the users constantly

Keep constant touch with the users to understand how to implement in a better way. What is working for them and what is not. Constant engagement helps to ease up the implementation process. Take advantage of existing software supports.

While building a tech based infrastructure the process is quite long and can need a lot of iterations. To fasten up the process and avoid tech failure based issues seek help from existing similar kind of softwares while implementing the proposed ideas.

Collaborate and learn from others.

Collaborating with existing structures or who are also in the implementation process helps a lot. It gives a chance to learn how things could and what could be a better solution for the problems faced.

Promote and encourage.

Promoting makes the user believe in your design. Encouraging the user while the implementation process is going on keeps the user engaged and interested in the product.

Don’t go overboard with the budget.

The most crucial part of implementing is to keep the budget maintained. Keep in mind the budget you have and keep constant monitoring to avoid going over budget.

Keep in mind the safety measures.

The work should be done keeping in mind the safety of the users. The safety should not be breached.

Post implementation challenges

No feedback friendly environment.

The users are not given any opportunity to give feedback. What problems are being faced, what works for them what doesn’t work for them.

Lack of maintenance leading to more trouble for the users.

Once it is implemented there is a lack of care and maintenance. The signages or softwares of whatever design is added tends to get ruined or fails because they’re not updated, maintained or serviced regularly.

Lack of attention and consistency leading to failure of everything over the course of time.

The authorities doesn’t fulfil the regular duties. There is no proper attention given to the design, how is working, what is the issue , what needs to be fixed and due to the lack of attention the infrastructure tends to fall apart.

Lack of information and knowledge depriving user to get the benefits.

If the user has not been made aware of the design during the implementation process the user lacks information about the benefits of the product, what services are being provided and how to get maximum benefit because they are not being provided adequate information.

How to make universal design more accessible and help function smoothly-

• Easily accessible feedback platforms across the corners.

• Creating a team for regular surveys.

• Make the user feel heard for genuine and timely feedback.

• Regular maintenance of the portals, applications, softwares and lifts.

• Creating more approachable environment which is open to feedback.

• Evaluating the barriers and effectiveness of the design.

• Be consistent with user expectations

• Defining and addressing any new thing for better user experience since the beginning.

• Designs which are introduced can be tested and applied with evidence based methodology to gain more trust and understanding.

• Often, giving a learner a tool is insufficient To use the instrument efficiently, we must offer the necessary assistance. Many students require assistance navigating their surroundings (both in terms of the physical environment and the curriculum), and all students should be given the chance to use resources that can help them achieve the goal.

Solving the post implementation challenges

Easily accessible feedback platforms across the corners.

To make the user feel heard and get more and more constructive feedback there should be feedback platforms around the campus which are accessible to everyone. Keeping in mind the targeted audience. Creating a team for regular surveys.

To stay in constant contact with the user needs and activities there should be a survey team formed which can regularly follow up with the situation around and know the ratio. Make the user feel heard for genuine and timely feedback.

There is no point of feedback platforms and surveys is the user needs are not considered and the feedback panel is not working effectively. The feedbacks should be taken and considered on time to make the user feel heard and have faith in you.

Regular maintenance of the portals, applications, softwares and lifts.

The infrastructure should be regularly updated and maintained so that the user can get maximum benefits and can reach out without going through any hassle if there is any kind of issue.

Creating more approachable environment which is open to feedback.

Sometimes the user feels uncomfortable reaching out to give feedback or address the issues. We should create a kind of environment where people can reach out comfortably and easily without any hesitation. Evaluating the barriers and effectiveness of the design.

Evaluation should be conducted to analyze the barriers being faced and how effective is the design. Be consistent with user expectations

There should be consistency in the work and management. What the user needs and expects should be consistently hear and fulfil it.

Defining and addressing any new thing for better user experience since the beginning. After something new is added, there should be proper adequate promotion. To make the user understand the system properly it should be addressed and defined to the user so that the user can get maximum benefits and doesn’t miss out on anything due to lack of knowledge.

Designs which are introduced can be tested and applied with evidence based methodology to gain more trust and understanding.

To gain the trust of user that the product or system introduced is beneficial the designs should be tested before implementing so that the user has evidence based knowledge and would believe in considering and giving constructive feedback.

Often, giving a learner a tool is insufficient. To use the instrument efficiently, we must offer the necessary assistance. Many students require assistance navigating their surroundings (both in terms of the physical environment and the curriculum), and all students should be given the chance to use resources that can help them achieve the goal

Sometimes the users are given and offered the opportunity but they are not getting the benefits from it due to lack of knowledge and understanding. They do not know how to operate and get benefits from the system. Proper assistance should be provided to the students to make it easier for them to operate and interact.

Challenges face by the team while working on the project and how we overcame them

Maitri Thakkar- Communication gap and lack of availability of all the team members at same point of time

Dhruvi Shah - Communication gap and lack of coordination among team members which lead to decrease in quality of work; Overcoming the challenge by addressing the issues to the team members, distributing work, and meeting up with the team members to discuss and ideate.

Purvaa Laddha- Lack of coordination among the team members Overcoming this problem by properly and clearly discussing beforehand and following the tips of communication given by our mentor, Mr. Satyam Parikh sir.

Gauri Nevatia - Lack of communication and irregularities in follow ups. Following guidelines given by our mentor about the miscommunication that helped immensely to overcome the difficulties.

Janhavi Aggarwal- Lack of coordination and miscommunication among the team members.