Design thinking is evolving to meet the needs of diverse users and complex social realities — inclusivity and well-being are no longer optional, but essential.
Design thinking has been around for over 40 years and will continue evolving as long as people design for others. The actual job is to create products and services that work for real people — not just the idealized user on a slide. The stakes are higher than ever: if your design excludes any user group, you lose customers, damage trust, and miss opportunities.
Inclusive design and well-being are emerging as foundational trends — not afterthoughts or luxuries. They require empathy, awareness of diversity, and humility to question assumptions. This lesson will ground you in these trends so you can apply them thoughtfully in your work.
Inclusive design is the future — not a checkbox
When was the last time you got frustrated because your mom couldn’t use a digital app? Or you lost patience with a delivery person who struggled with the instructions in their app? Or you made an assumption about someone’s abilities based on their job title or background?
These moments reveal a harsh truth: many products exclude people unintentionally. Inclusive design means creating products that are accessible and usable by a wide spectrum of individuals — including those with disabilities, different languages, cultural practices, and tech literacy levels.
Inclusive design is broader than accessibility. Accessibility focuses on disabilities, such as visual or motor impairments. Inclusivity considers a wider spectrum: age, language fluency, socio-economic background, gender identity, dietary restrictions, and more.
For example, think about ordering food on an app. If the app only lets you filter by popular cuisines but ignores dietary preferences like vegan, keto, or allergen-free, you exclude many users. Inclusive design asks: who are you unintentionally leaving out? How can the product recognize and learn from diverse user needs?
The pattern is consistent: if you do not deliberately learn from diversity, your design will exclude. That exclusion happens silently, until users drop off or complain.
Identity is multi-dimensional
People are not one-dimensional personas. Your users have multiple identities that interact: language, culture, physical ability, education, economic status, and more. Your design must consider these layers.
For example, in India, 22 scheduled languages and multiple scripts coexist. A user in Kerala may be fluent in Malayalam but not English. A rural user may have intermittent connectivity and low digital literacy. An urban user in Mumbai may expect sleek UX but also need offline modes.
Good design asks: are my app’s language options enough? Are my instructions clear for someone new to smartphones? Am I considering religious fasting when scheduling notifications or meetings? These questions reflect inclusive thinking.
The trap of assumptions
Many product teams make assumptions that exclude:
- Assuming everyone speaks English fluently
- Assuming everyone has the latest smartphone or fast internet
- Assuming all users are comfortable with complex navigation or jargon
- Assuming everyone’s health or dietary needs are the same
- Assuming only formal education confers expertise
These assumptions lead to exclusion that erodes user trust and adoption.
Microsoft and Zomato as examples
Microsoft’s Inclusive Design practice is a model for how anyone creating products can build inclusivity into their process. It emphasizes recognizing exclusion, learning from diversity, and designing for flexibility.
Zomato has taken steps to address inclusivity by expanding diet-specific filters beyond the usual vegetarian/non-vegetarian to include vegan, keto, and allergen-free options. They use data analytics to tailor recommendations and promotions to individual dietary habits and health goals. This makes the product more usable and relevant for diverse users.
Design for well-being is gaining ground
Design is not just about functionality or aesthetics. Increasingly, designers focus on promoting well-being — improving users’ quality of life, mental health, and social connection.
Well-being in design can mean:
- Incorporating mindfulness features that help users manage stress
- Designing social interaction elements that foster community and support
- Avoiding addictive patterns that harm mental health
- Creating interfaces that reduce cognitive load and frustration
Well-being design requires empathy and a deep understanding of how users interact with technology emotionally and socially.
AI and machine learning are changing design thinking
AI and ML offer powerful tools to analyze user data and generate personalized experiences. But they also raise questions about inclusivity and ethics.
Designers now integrate AI into the process to:
- Identify patterns in diverse user behavior
- Personalize content and recommendations based on user preferences
- Automate accessibility features like voice recognition or image descriptions
At the same time, AI systems must be designed to avoid biases and exclusion. Poorly trained models can reinforce stereotypes or ignore minority groups.
Your actual job is to apply AI thoughtfully — not just as a feature, but as part of a design strategy that respects diversity and well-being.
What to focus on — and what to skip for now
Emerging trends in design thinking include many exciting areas:
- Inclusive Design
- Sustainability
- Design for Well-being
- AI and ML for data insights
- Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Voice User Interfaces (VUI)
- Emotional Connection through storytelling and personalization
Of these, inclusive design and well-being are gaining the most traction and urgency. Sustainability is important but often secondary in digital products — it will be covered in a future lesson as a subtopic.
VR/AR, IoT, and VUI are specialized fields that require separate focus. Emotional connection is part of user experience design and will be addressed in related lessons.
Asking the right questions to avoid exclusion
To apply inclusive and well-being design, you must ask:
- Who am I excluding without realizing it?
- What assumptions am I making about my users’ abilities, backgrounds, and contexts?
- How can I design flexible experiences that adapt to diverse needs?
- How does my product impact users’ mental and physical well-being?
- How can AI help personalize without bias or exclusion?
These questions help you move beyond checklists to a mindset of empathy and continuous learning.
Supporting materials for further learning
There are excellent resources and workshops available to deepen your understanding:
- Microsoft Inclusive Design guidelines: practical steps for building inclusivity into any product
- Cognitive exclusion cards: activities to identify hidden exclusion in your design
- Inclusive AI resources: how to design AI systems that respect diversity
- Case studies from Indian companies like Zomato applying inclusive design in practice
The World Design Council is a key source of emerging global design trends and principles.
Test yourself: Applying inclusive and well-being design
You are the PM of a digital payments app serving users across urban and rural India, with many first-time smartphone users and users with varying literacy levels. Your team is designing a new onboarding flow.
The call: What inclusive design principles should you apply to ensure the onboarding is accessible and welcoming to all users? How will you validate your design assumptions?
Your reasoning:
Where to go next
- Deepen your skills in user research for diversity: User Research Methods
- Explore ethical design principles: Ethical PM
- Learn how to design for emotional engagement: Designing for Emotional Connection
- Understand AI's role in personalization: AI Product Strategy
- Apply accessibility standards: Accessibility in Product Design