When people come to your school’s website, what do they see? A welcoming, inviting space with attractive visuals and clear directions? Or is it more like this: sparse, static, and bare?
When schools prioritize efficiency above all — even in the case of vital data collection — they miss out on creating a welcoming and trustworthy digital space for their community.
A welcoming space is an accessible one, and inclusive design helps us to create experiences that are available to as many people as possible. When we think about inclusivity, we tend to think about color contrast, typography size, and layout. While that’s important, there are more psychological approaches to inclusive design that create accessible spaces for all kinds of people.
People intuitively appreciate the difference between old and new. When you walk into a school building with advanced technology, bright coats of paint, and shiny linoleum floors, you feel valued and worthy. On the other hand, it’s hard to feel valued in a run-down concrete box with a guard stationed at the front door. In virtual spaces, we don’t always recognize the difference as starkly, but the effect is the same. The structure — or flow — of a page, and the ways in which information is collected, impacts the way people feel in online spaces. The difference between inclusive design and design focused solely on data collection is the difference between a valued school community and one that feels like it’s just being tolerated.
Want to learn more about how you can create an improved, inclusive experience with your SIS? We’d love to chat.