The Inclusive Innovation Playbook

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Inclusive Data Collection

Collecting data from people

In order to measure the impact of your diversity and inclusion efforts you’ll need to capture data from people. This could be internal teams, user research groups, customers or wider members of your community. It requires creating transparency and building trust. People will want to know what their data will be used for and what’s in it for them. They will want to be sure that sharing private information such as their disability or sexuality will not have any negative consequences for them.

Capturing diversity data requires sensitivity and care as it can be a sensitive topic. Thought is needed around how data is collected, viewed, stored and utilised, particularly for potentially vulnerable or marginalised communities.

It's important to ensure that:

The data collection process is transparent and respects privacy and confidentiality.

People are informed of how the data will be used and have the option to opt-out if they are uncomfortable sharing their information. You explain why you are requesting the information and how this will help you to create more inclusive products and services. This will help people make informed choices about what they share.

You consider any potential harm or impact that collecting certain information may have on underrepresented groups, and to avoid collecting data that may perpetuate harmful stereotypes or reinforce existing biases.

You have policies and procedures in place to protect the privacy and confidentiality of diversity data.

You engage with diverse stakeholders to understand their perspectives and concerns.

You comply with relevant regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (

GDPR⁠

You’ll need to determine what factors are important for your context.

Inclusive Forms

One important and essential component of creating inclusive digital products and services is the use of inclusive forms.

Forms exist to collect information from users when they interact with your user interface, for example, on your website, in your app or through your online store.

Forms can be used for an infinite number of purposes such as:

User sign up.

Purchasing products or services.

Questionaires.

Collecting feedback.

Profiling customers.

Applications.

They might collect information such as:

Contact data and address data.

(Socio)demographic data.

Preferences, dialogue or special requests.

Unintentional exclusion

All too often digital forms are not designed with inclusion in mind. This can lead to poor user experience, inaccurate data collection or worse still, cause negative or harmful experiences for some users, especially those from marginalised communities.

Examples might be, asking someone to select ‘male’ or ‘female’, when their gender is non binary or insisting on a mandatory phone number as the only communication option. The latter could be problematic for someone with

telephone phobia⁠

, or someone who is deaf but does not have the

technology or support to take phone calls⁠

Designing inclusive forms

It is enormously important to design forms inclusively. This means:

Creating a positive experience for users to share their information with you, especially those from marginalised communities.

Forms should provide options for users to identify themselves in a way that is most comfortable for them, including options for different gender identities, pronouns and ethnicities.

Forms should avoid making assumptions or perpetuating stereotypes about users' identities, abilities, or preferences.

This includes avoiding gender-specific titles and language, and providing options for users to specify their preferred name or title or contact channel.

Being intentional and clear about what information you request and why.

Due consideration should be given to which elements are mandatory, striking the balance between better understanding your users in order to better serve their needs versus respecting their privacy.

Considering digital accessibility and ‘

POUR⁠

’.

Using inclusive language and ‘select from’ options that don’t make people feel excluded, uncomfortable or even unsafe.

Effective questionnaire design that carefully considers factors such as use of mandatory, field types and survey length.

Well-designed forms provide better data insights and baselines, lead to less frustration and abandonment among potential customers, and also reduce technical feedback to help desk teams.

Inclusive data collection principles

Reusability is key when it comes to digital products and services. It saves time and increases consistency to have reusable components or templates that are created once and used many times.

Whilst this is not a new concept by any means, what is new is the idea of using this to create a reusable set of inclusive data collection principles and inclusive form designs.

There isn’t a one size fits all answer to designing inclusive forms. If you do not understand who your users are, you will not be able to understand whether different groups have different experiences. You’ll need to navigate the tricky balance of asking just the right level of information, giving users the context they need and using inclusive language that makes your target audience feel comfortable. It is like creating a style guide, what is right for one organisation, and situation will not be right for another.

Help your teams feel confident that they are taking a consistent approach to creating an inclusive experience for all users. Create a set of inclusive data collection principles and digital assets that can be reused, ensuing that you don’t reinvent the wheel each time you need a new form.

Guiding questions

To help you create inclusive forms, we have provided a number of guiding questions you can use, to identify potential improvements to specific form designs and also to create your reusable principles and assets.

These are divided into the following different areas:

General considerations.

Names.

Gender & Sexuality.

Ethnicity.

Addresses and phone numbers.

Digital accessibility.

1. General considerations

Use the following questions to understand the broad goals and scope for your form.

What data is being asked for and for what reason?

What data is really necessary to ask for?

For which elements would an explanation for the user as to why this data is being collected be beneficial?

Where are more detailed queries about personal data helpful in understanding the experiences of different groups?

Is it more appropriate to provide options for the user to select from or will you let them self identify or describe their response in their own words?

How is the data subsequently used?

How will personal data be protected?

Which historically marginalised groups are you looking to explicitly ensure feel included and are protected?

How will gathering this information benefit us? How will it benefit the user?

Could we cause harm by asking of these questions? Who could be affected?

How are geographical differences considered?

It can be helpful to explore what other organisations are doing however it is worth acknowledging that it’s a hugely complex topic, what is appropriate for one organisation may not be right for another, society is evolving rapidly and organisations are still catching up.

It was only in 2021 that the

UK Census⁠

included a question on gender identity, asking, “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?” to which 0.5% of the population said no, and 6% did not answer.

What is clear is that intentional and careful consideration is needed to create inclusive forms.

2. Names

There are a number of factors to consider to ensure your forms have inclusive name fields. Without due consideration you can prevent some people from entering their names and even cause harm to others, by insisting they use a name they no longer identify with. For someone recently married, this might be mild annoyance, however

deadnaming⁠

can be a painful experience for a transgender or non-binary person.

People change their names for

many reasons⁠

, such as marriage, gender transition, adoption, stalking or even when moving to a different country they may choose to use or are forced to use a local version of their name. Our names reflect our identity and it can be an emotionally charged experience to change one’s name, both positive or negative.

For some, there can be obstacles to changing one’s legal name, so you should be aware that not everyone uses their legal name, and therefore may not have official documentation to support a name change. Even with the official documentation, it is often not possible to change one or more names in an existing digital account after an official document change. Some systems will allow users to change their last names but not their first names.

It is also important to consider regional and cultural differences in names. There are a number of reasons someone may not be able to enter their first name(s) and/or last name(s) in a form. This could occur if the form is not well designed and:

Their name includes special characters, such as ä, ü, ö, ß, which are common in the German language, or ç, ş, which are common in the Turkish language,

- in Korean first names⁠

or ë in the Albanian language

Names that include several capital letters, such as McDonald.

The first or second name is very short, such as

J. from California, USA⁠

The following guiding questions can be used to ensure your name fields are inclusive:

Do you distinguish between name and legal name?

Is it necessary to ask for a legal name? If so, do you explain why?

For example...

What is your name?

We ask this so we know how to address you.

What is your legal name?

We ask this so we can confirm your identity with your official documentation.

Is it possible to subsequently change one's own first name(s) or last name?

Are special characters allowed in the name?

Are multiple capital letters allowed in the name?

Is the minimum character length waived so that people with short first and last names can fill out the form without any problems?

Is it appropriate for people to be able to provide written or verbal guidance on how to pronounce their name?

For example, in 2022 LinkedIn enabled its users to record their name pronunciation and display it on their LinkedIn profile for others to listen to. This feature helps LinkedIn members to correctly address each other, and removes any doubt or fear that can be associated with using unfamiliar names.

3. Gender and sexuality

A key consideration when designing inclusive forms is to consider the diversity of gender and sexuality of your respondents. Gender is not binary, and forms that imply it is, are not inclusive.

People define their own gender, which can be fluid and different from the gender assigned at birth. A person's gender cannot be inferred from a name, appearance or voice.

For forms that include fields such as gender, title, pronouns or sexuality, it is important to design forms in a sensitive way, without forcing a person to share information they do not feel comfortable with, or misgendering them by not providing enough options. Both of which can be particularly painful for those who are affected, reminding them that their journey is not reflected or accepted in the world around them.

The first consideration is what information is needed and why. Are you just asking about gender because you always have, even though you don’t use the information for anything? Or will it inform the future interactions with your user or provide relevant and actionable insights?

In Caroline Criado Perez’s book

Invisible Women⁠

there are many examples that show the need for disaggregated data. If we don’t consider gender differences Caroline argues, very convincingly that we end up with a data gap and a world largely built for men, with outcomes such as women being prescribed the wrong drugs or being more likely to be seriously injured in car accidents. The reality is more nuanced, with a world that favours white, cis, heterosexual men, so taking a more intersectional approach is critical.

Asking for information about people’s gender and sexuality allows to you to:

Address them correctly.

Understand people’s needs better and target and tailor specific products or services.

Create policies for underserved groups and offer specific benefits.

Understand differences across your user base in order to spot trends and patterns allowing you address issues and better serve your users.

To monitor equality between groups of people of different genders. Equality monitoring helps make sure that everyone is treated fairly.

When considering fields such as title, gender, sexuality and pronouns the following guiding questions can be used to help you create more inclusive forms:

What information is really necessary and who benefits?

For example, when asking for gender, do so because there will be a benefit and respect the self-determined gender. Only ask for gender assigned at birth if there is a specific and valid reason for doing so. Most of the time, it is simply none of your business!

Does it benefit the user for you to know their sexuality? A lot of the time this isn’t relevant or needed. However if you are offering a dating app or specific health services this is relevant. If you are offering a TV streaming service it may be less obvious, but it may help you curate content to offer a better service.

Why will you collect it and how will you use it?

For example, if you will use gender or sexuality information to curate content for your users you must consider how you’ll do this in a way that makes them feel safe and respects their privacy.

Will you explain to your users why you are asking for it?

For example, “We ask for your title and pronouns so we can address you correctly.”

Which fields will be optional?

Some people choose not to have a title.

Some people may not feel comfortable disclosing their sexuality.

What options will you include and will you let people self specify?

A gender-inclusive option for title being used more commonly is "Mx." (pronounced Mix). People may also have no salutation or prefer to self specify.

More inclusive options for gender might include: “male”, “female” "cis", "transgender", "intersex" "non-binary" , “gender non-confirming”. This list is by no means exhaustive. For example Facebook offers over 50 options. People may also “prefer not to say” or “self specify”. You have to find the balance that is right for your circumstance and your users.

Options for pronouns could include: She/Her, He/Him, They/Them. People may also “prefer not to say” or “self specify”.

Will you allow users to select multiple options?

For example, a person can be trans and non-binary, or also cis and inter.

What regional variations should be considered and which terms are most acceptable for your intended audience?

For example,

Two Spirit⁠

is a gender found in some Native American cultures, often involving birth-assigned men or women taking on the identities and roles of the opposite sex. Gender is a complex topic and the term itself is not universally accepted and has been criticised.

How will you choose to address your users?

As some people choose to have no salutation “Hello [First Name] [Last Name]” which is more inclusive, is being used more and more over the more formal “Dear [Title] [Last Name]”.

How easy will it be for users to change it later?

For example, if someone changes their assigned gender in their official documents, can they discreetly and easily update their account information? No user wants to be shamed, outed, misgendered or have an awkward conversation with your customer services team to update their records.

How will you protect the privacy, safety and anonymity of your users?

For example, accidentally ‘outing’ someone who shared their data with you in confidence is to be avoided.

4. Ethnicity and race

Ethnicity and race is another topic where careful consideration is needed to ensure you create an inclusive experience for all users, when requesting they share their information with you.

Race is social construct categorising individuals based on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and facial features. Whereas ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, language, or history that defines a group of people. Ethnicity can be influenced by your heritage, the region of the world you are in, but also your own sense of identity. For example after immigrating some people may always relate to their birth country, whereas others over time may more closely relate to the culture of their new home.

All too often multiple factors are combined into a single field and users are forced to select which one they most identify with. Asking people to label themselves in this very constrained way, when there are a myriad of factors at play continues to be problematic.

There are also other challenges such as historic discrimination and racism that people with darker skin or some ethnicities face. This can affect how people feel about sharing their ethnicity. For many this is a sensitive topic.

In addition terms used to group multiple people with multiple ethnicities together can be unhelpful and counter productive. For example ‘BAME’ (black, Asian and minority ethnic) is used in the UK to group all ethnic minorities together. This can disguise huge differences in outcomes between ethnic groups. In addition people tend to identify as being part of a specific ethnic group e.g. Chinese, Bangladeshi rather than as being BAME. In 2022 the UK government

made a commitment⁠

to no longer use the term. Society continues to evolve as cultural identities shift and so too does the language we use.

When collecting ethnicity or race data from your users here are some guiding questions to help you create an inclusive experience.

What data do you need and why? Is this a single ethnicity field or are their other aspects of their cultural identity that are relevant such as nationality, languages spoken or skin colour?

Do you explain why you are requesting this information and how it will be used for the benefit of the user?

What options will you provide for each field and can users self specify? Will users be able to select multiple boxes?

Which geographies are your users in? Are the ethnicity field options relevant to the local environment? Which ethnic identities are most common in the relevant regions?

5. Addresses and phone numbers

One aspect of inclusion is making people from different countries feel welcome and as if your experiences was designed for them, no matter where they are.

However, worldwide, there are very different rules, DIN standards and allocation guidelines when it comes to address data such as street, house number, postcodes, city, country and telephone numbers. The order of this data for mailing is also not standardised worldwide, e.g. in Great Britain the city and postcode must be written in separate lines, whereas in the USA or Germany, for example, this is written in one line. Difficulties can arise with address data as well as telephone number entries that begin with 0 (e.g. 0 as an

existing house number in Northern and Western Europe⁠

), translated as zero (e.g.

Zero Prince Street⁠

) or do not correspond to a certain format that is precisely specified in the form line (see the point on Digital Accessibility), such as various

telephone number formats⁠

that may differ from the company's own registered headquarters. The guiding questions to ask are:

Are your address fields appropriate for all supported geographies?

For example, is testing done with local establishments in multiple countries, online shops & global organisations where appropriate.

Have all phone number formats been considered and can every person, regardless of their country, enter their phone number completely and correctly in a standardised form - with the appropriate country code, mobile and analogue, as well as in the appropriate length?

Collecting data from people

Inclusive Forms

Unintentional exclusion

Designing inclusive forms

Inclusive data collection principles

Guiding questions

1. General considerations

2. Names

3. Gender and sexuality

4. Ethnicity and race

5. Addresses and phone numbers

6. Digital accessibility

Additional Resources

Building inclusive products for trans people

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