Inclusive Product & Equity: Case Studies and Principles for Indian Contexts

Inclusive design is not a checklist or a feature set. It is a mindset shift — from designing for the “average” user to designing for the full range of human abilities and contexts. The trap is to assume your own experience is universal. The actual job is to recognise who you are excluding and why.

This matters deeply in India, where diversity is vast — across languages, education, physical abilities, economic conditions, and cultural practices. If you build products that only work well for urban, English-speaking, able-bodied users, you miss out on hundreds of millions of potential customers and fail your social responsibility.

The rest of this lesson walks you through frameworks, case studies, and tools to help you build more inclusive and equitable products.

Designing beyond your own abilities

The problem with most product design is that it starts from what is easy for the designer or the team. You think: “I am 25 years old, I have perfect vision, I speak English fluently, I use the latest smartphone.” You design for that user. But that user is not the entire market.

Inclusive design asks: who else is out there? Who struggles with your product because of their abilities or context?

Talvinder often asks: “When was the last time you got annoyed because your mom couldn’t figure out a digital task? When was the last time you were impatient with a colleague struggling with new software? When was the last time you judged someone’s opinion because they lacked formal education?”

These moments reveal hidden biases. If you do not question them, your product will exclude those users.

Inclusive design is fundamentally about empathy — understanding the full spectrum of human ability and creating products that work for as many people as possible.

Accessibility is a subset of inclusivity

Accessibility focuses on removing barriers for people with disabilities — visual, auditory, motor, cognitive. It is a critical part of inclusive design but not the whole.

Inclusive design is broader. It includes:

• Different ages and tech literacy levels
• Cognitive diversity (e.g., neurodivergence)
• Language and literacy differences
• Economic disparities affecting device and connectivity quality
• Cultural and religious practices affecting usage patterns

Microsoft’s Inclusive Design practice frames accessibility as an attribute within the broader methodology of inclusive design. This means accessibility features like screen readers or high-contrast modes are part of a larger commitment to equity.

If you focus only on accessibility, you risk solving for legal compliance without addressing the lived realities of diverse users.

Case study: Google’s Monk Skin Tone Scale

Google noticed that traditional color palettes ignored the diversity of skin tones, leading to products that did not represent users accurately. To fix this, they developed the Monk Skin Tone Scale — a palette of 10 skin tones designed to be more inclusive than the usual 5 or 6.

This scale is now used across Google products to improve representation in emojis, image search, and other features.

The lesson here: representation matters. When users see themselves reflected in your product, it builds trust and engagement.

Many Indian products overlook this. For example, emoji sets and avatar customizations often default to lighter skin tones or Western features, alienating large user segments.

Case study: Ikea’s ThisAbles Campaign

Ikea created “ThisAbles” — a set of add-ons and modifications that make existing furniture accessible to people with disabilities. Instead of designing entirely new products, they enabled disabled users to use standard products with ease.

This campaign reached an audience often ignored by mainstream design.

The key insight: Solve for one, extend to many. Designing for specific needs often uncovers improvements that benefit all users.

In India, such thinking can unlock markets among elderly users, people with disabilities, and those in rural areas facing different challenges.

Case study: Shopify’s “Purple People” critique

A Shopify UX lead wrote a candid article titled “You Can’t Just Draw Purple People and Call It Diversity.” She criticized the practice of using generic, unrealistic avatars (purple-skinned cartoon characters) to represent inclusivity without meaningful design changes.

This highlights a common trap: performative inclusion. Adding token elements without addressing core usability and accessibility issues does not create equity.

Indian startups often fall into this trap by adding “diversity” filters or features that do not reflect real user needs or cultural contexts.

Tools and frameworks for inclusive design

Talvinder recommends several resources that serve as practical guides:

• Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit: A comprehensive set of principles, activity cards, and worksheets to guide teams through inclusive design practices.

• Inclusive Design Toolkit case studies: Real-world examples of how companies apply inclusive design to solve complex problems.

• Implicit Association Test (Harvard): A tool to uncover unconscious biases that affect your design decisions.

• WebAIM Wave and Deque Axe: Accessibility testing tools to evaluate your digital products against standards.

• LinkedIn Learning course “Why Identify Your Bias”: Helps teams recognize and mitigate biases in their work.

These tools can be integrated into your product discovery, design, and QA processes to ensure you are building equitable experiences.

Applying inclusive design in India: Zomato example

Zomato’s current limitations include:

• Limited dietary filters (e.g., vegan, keto, allergen-free) that do not capture the full range of Indian dietary needs.

• One-size-fits-all recommendations and promotions that ignore regional and cultural food preferences.

• UI complexity that can overwhelm older or less tech-savvy users.

Talvinder suggests improvements such as:

• Expanding diet-specific filters to include regional and religious diets.

• Tailoring recommendations using data analytics to individual habits and health goals.

• Simplifying navigation and adding voice search to improve accessibility.

• Adding accessibility features like text-to-speech and high contrast modes for users with visual impairments.

• Creating robust feedback mechanisms to capture inclusivity issues from diverse users.

This is a concrete example of how inclusive design principles can improve a mass-market Indian product.

Cognitive exclusion and inclusive AI

Inclusive design must also address cognitive differences — how people process information, focus, and navigate interfaces.

Microsoft’s Inclusive Design for Cognition guides and worksheets provide activities to recruit diverse users for testing and design for better guidance, focus, and comprehension.

Inclusive AI is another frontier. AI systems trained on biased datasets can perpetuate exclusion. Designing AI products with inclusivity in mind requires:

• Diverse training data

• Transparent failure modes

• User feedback loops that correct errors

• Interfaces that accommodate different cognitive styles

The social imperative and business case

Inclusive design is not just a “nice to have.” It is a business imperative in India’s diverse society.

Talvinder points to the Google SEA report that frames digital inclusion as a necessity — not a luxury.

Products that exclude large user groups risk losing market share and invite regulatory scrutiny.

Inclusive design also builds brand trust and loyalty among underserved communities.

Common biases and how to avoid them

Talvinder challenges you to examine your own assumptions:

• Do you assume all users have fast internet and the latest smartphones?

• Do you assume English proficiency or literacy?

• Do you assume users do not have disabilities or cognitive differences?

• Do you assume all users celebrate the same holidays or observe the same work patterns?

The honest truth is these assumptions lead to exclusion.

Avoid them by:

• Interviewing a diverse user base regularly

• Testing products with users who have disabilities or lower tech literacy

• Using data to segment users by abilities and contexts

• Designing flexible, adaptable interfaces

• Prioritizing accessibility as a baseline, not an afterthought

Field exercise: Inclusive design audit (15 min)

Pick a product you use daily — Swiggy, Razorpay, Meesho, or any Indian app.

1. Identify who the product is designed for. Whose needs does it serve well?

2. Identify who might be excluded — by language, ability, device, culture, or other factors.

3. List three concrete changes you would make to improve inclusivity.

4. Consider how these changes would affect the product’s business metrics.

This exercise helps you internalize the inclusive mindset.

Test yourself: The Accessibility Challenge

Where to go next

• If you want to deepen your understanding of inclusive design: Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit

• If you want to learn how to identify and mitigate bias: Why Identify Your Bias? (LinkedIn Learning)

• If you want to build accessibility into your product process: WebAIM Wave Accessibility Tool

• If you want to explore cognitive inclusion: Inclusive Design for Cognition Guidebook (Microsoft)

• If you want to understand digital well-being alongside inclusivity: Google Digital Wellbeing Toolkit