nike
extending beyond adaptive athletes* with an accessibility and inclusive design playbook that guides design for people with disabilities
To champion innovation and inspire all athletes* while changing the game of sports by cultivating a culture rooted in impact and collaboration.
Athletes*
*If you have a body, you are an athlete
If you have a body, you are an athlete.
If you have a body, you are an athlete.
At Nike, what it means to be athlete* is defined and recognized by the *. This defines and speaks in volume to the importance of inclusion and accessibility at Nike.
THE INTRODUCTION
With the growth of innovation across Nike’s digital experiences, it is important to consider the people we are designing for - their unique needs and preferences - to create a more equitable experience that reflect all athletes* and communities.
There are many missed opportunities from not considering people with disabilities. In fact, investing in accessibility and in people with disabilities has significant benefits including:
The purchasing power of people with disabilities is $8 trillion dollars
Fixing accessibility issues costs 10x more than integrating accessibility into a workflow
The legal risks of violating the American with Disabilities Act
Where’s Nike at with digital accessibility and inclusive design?
Accessibility and inclusion is important so that all athletes have equal access to Nike’s products and have equitable experiences throughout their journey, yet it is still growing at Nike, especially in the digital space. Nike is working towards establishing accessibility and inclusive design guidelines across their entire digital ecosystem that centers disabled individuals.
The problem lies in the following:
According to Nike, right now, teams are not doing enough of and are uncertain about how and where in their workflow processes to bring in accessibility.
As a result,
Nike wants a playbook that serves as the source of truth for accessibility and inclusive design that will guide designers.
MEET THE TEAM
Podium Design System
focuses on the creation, definition, advocacy, adoption, refinement, and transformation of Nike’s design system that defines the shared design language and brand for Nike’s digital experiences across their enterprise, internal, and consumer products and experiences.
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Hayley Hughes
Design Director - Podium Design System (& Manager!) -
Travis Burkstrand
Designer II - Podium Design System (& Mentor!)Jeremy Won
Sr. Designer - Podium Design SystemIssac Ruiz
Designer II - Podium Design System -
April Lucero
Sr. Producer - Podium Design System -
Alex Korchinski
Director - Digital Accessibility
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Todd Murphy
Copy Director - Design Foundations
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Geoff Dinsdale
Sr. Software Engineer III
Emily Phan
Sr. Designer - Engagement Tools
Jing Jang
Sr. Staff Designer - Activity
Stephen Ateser
Staff Designer - Core Commerce
JP Devries
Principal Engineer - Digital Accessibility
Darcy McFarlane
Global Consumer Direct Marketing Manager - Women’s Football and Basketball
Mei Xia
Designer II - Activity (& Mentor!)
Amber Jaitrong
Software Engineer I
Nicole Nakano
Designer II -Digital Service
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Let’s get started -
We want to have a deeper understanding of our problem space with accessibility at Nike and better understand of standards of accessibility handbooks. This was done with the following secondary research methods: research audit, literature review, comparative analysis, and stakeholder interviews with Nike designers, engineers, digital accessibility, and much more. This led us to our core research question and what we wanted to solve.
Research audit exploring accessibility guidelines from Microsoft, Google, and IBM
To further understand the problem space, we began by diving deeper to understand the root behind and of why teams are uncertain of how and where in their workflow process to integrate accessibility as well as why teams are not integrating accessibility, which will pave way for content and design opportunities for the playbook.
This was done with the following research methods: User Interviews, Co-synthesized affinity diagramming, Empathy Mapping, Workflow diagram, Co moderated card sorting activity.
USER RESEARCH & SYNTHESIS
Again, why?
User Interviews
A set of 6 user interviews conducted consisting of Nike employees including non-disclosed participants with disabilities includes to understand how Nike teams currently integrate accessibility into their workflow process and the gaps and the challenges with integrating accessibility into their workflow.
Affinity Diagramming
Co-synthesized affinity diagramming session on Figjam
The data from the user interviews were synthesized through a co-synthesized affinity diagramming session with 4 participants (n = 4). This led to the identification of four key insights.
FINDINGS
Here’s what we found -
01
Accessibility is not integrated early enough
I can probably improve and probably our entire team can improve in bringing it even more top of funnel in terms of design discovery process. Right now, it is once we've nail down a few decisions, how do we go through the checks and balances of making sure that it is as accessible as possible but it needs to move even more upstream.”
“
02
People are not aware of or knowledgeable about accessibility
And then myself, like my own knowledge about accessibility. Okay, but sometimes I feel like do I actually really know the right things for accessibility, or do I misinterpret what it said online.”
“
03
There is a demand for other teams to care about accessibility
Accessibility work is a matter of prioritization and there's no metric and there's no kind of success framework for when you know product managers and business partners are reviewing the prioritization of the work. There's nothing in there to really tell that story about where we're at with accessibility, where we want to be and why.”
“
04
Informed sections and content for the playbook
So yeah its design is incredibly important, now I wish I had more input to design just to let people know these things to think not just about - is it accessible? But does it flow for somebody who is using a screen reader or any other kind of accessibility tool.”
“
MORE INSIGHT ANALYSIS AND DEFINITION!
How are they really feeling about this? And anything else we need to uncover?
Empathy Mapping
Empathy mapping on Figma
Participants felt unprepared, unequipped, uninformed, and unaware about accessibility - that integrating accessibility is out of reach and not in their control.
Workflow Diagram
Participants mostly integrated accessibility within the design and development phase or later into the product design and development cycle than earlier in the phase - a missed opportunity.
Workflow diagram on Figma
How do we guide teams, establish standards, and encourage adoption of accessibility and inclusive design across Nike’s digital teams all in a centralized resource so that teams are informed?
IDEATION & CONTENT DESIGN
We have discussed that the playbook that serves as the centralized, source of truth on accessibility and inclusive design will be embedded into Podium Design System. This will ensure that designers and teams actively refer to the documentation and encourages adoption.
What (more) should be included in the playbook?
Card Sorting / Information Architecture
A collaborative, participatory, co-sorting session with 4 participants was conducted and led to the findings that users wanted the following included - an accessibility visual design checklist, how to bring accessibility beyond design at a high level, and knowledge on other accessibility practices. This also included how we organize our information.
Results from (co-organized) moderated open card sorting session on Figjam with participants
Content Design
The content of the accessibility and inclusive design handbook was written and fleshed out with feedback back and considerations from the co-organized moderated card sorting activity. Copyrighting team reviewed and provided feedback on the content.
DESIGN ITERATIONS
Here’s how our solution started -
The accessibility and inclusive design playbook’s design were iterated from content design to low-fidelity wireframes to mid-fidelity design and then high-fidelity designs.
Top left: Content design
Top right: Low-fidelity wireframes
Bottom left: Mid-fidelity design
Bottom right: High-fidelity designs
DESIGN SOLUTION
It all led us to the following …
A playbook that aims to change the product design framework to create community-centered solutions
That is led with and guided with this framework driving:
Design with, not just for, people with disabilities
Why? Because -
We need to do much more than a checklist.
Nike Accessibility and Inclusive Design Handbook
the designs of the playbook is currently private and not publicly viewed, and requires a password - feel free to reach out to me personally!
EVALUATION
A feedback session (n = 10) was held and reviews were given from copyrighting as well as from Nike designers. These were the feedback given:
01 / Reduced and digestible content
02 / Visual design changes for consistency and clarity
03 / Organizational and architecture flow
04 / Emphasis towards research and less checklist defined
FINISH LINE
How I would be keepin’ track
01 / Increased percentage of adoption of the handbook across teams
02 / Reduced number of accessibility errors
03 / Reduced number of accessibility tickets to the digital accessibility team
04 / High accessibility satisfaction of Nike’s products or accessibility rating
With more time, the Next Mile
01 / Emphasis on widespread adoption of Podium Design System
02 / Drive more team usage of playbook across teams
03 / Publish playbook to the Podium website
04 / Add accessible and inclusive practices for other marginalized communities
REFLECTION
Just do it. Seriously - just do it.
01
Cliche, but it’s true - it takes everyone to win as a team
02
Design teams need a design system
03
Be okay with change - that’s how we grow ourselves, team, and the work
04
Challenge our design systems - it evolves and continues to grow so learn to break it too
Portland and Beaverton and all of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest was really cool, fun, and undeniably beautiful too.
— my thoughts of summer twenty two.
