Pocket Guide: Inclusive Innovation

Pocket Guide: “Inclusive Innovation”

Create innovative solutions and share them in a simple and accessible way.

Innovating means solving real problems with solutions that transform reality. Deep listening, without judgment, is essential to understand people’s needs and create meaningful change.

Human-Centered Design

To create an innovative solution, follow the steps below:

• Observation: What are the user’s needs? Understand the full context of the problem, research data, and practice empathy.
• Ideation: A moment to use creativity to generate ideas and content. Dare to explore and question.
• Prototyping: Bring your idea into the physical world. Create a model or preliminary version and present your project. Share your solution in an impactful and accessible way.
• Testing: Time to test, validate, and refine.

These steps are inspired by the Double Diamond model.

After Creating, It’s Time to Present

Present Your Idea

• Catchphrase: the challenge.
• Problem: context, data, and why it matters.
• Solution: what it is and what makes it different for users.
• Description: how it works, cost or effort involved, and a clear call to action.

Tell a Story to Inform and Connect

• The protagonist and the context.
• The problem and or conflict.
• The protagonist increasingly entangled in the problem.
• A dead end.
• The turning point, or climax.
• The message or moral of the story.
• The learning.
• The end as a new beginning.

Plain Language

• Empathy: text centered on the person who will read it.
• Hierarchy: follow a logical and objective sequence. Start with the most relevant information, provide explanatory context, and finish with complementary details.
• Familiar and concrete words: avoid or explain acronyms, technical terms, and foreign words. Remove unnecessary language.
• Short sentences in direct order: replace nouns with action verbs. Avoid long and complex texts and embedded clauses.
• Inclusive and non-sexist language: avoid stereotypes and ensure representation and respect.
• Review and assessment: revise the text and make necessary adjustments.

Source: 011 Lab and Heloísa Fischer

Accessible Texts and Graphics

To create simple and easy-to-understand materials, consider the characteristics and needs of your audience. Select relevant data and organize it by levels of importance. Define the format, tone, and composition of the presentation.

• Colors and contrast: avoid similar colors on the spectrum and ensure high contrast. Use different patterns or textures to distinguish elements in charts. Follow accessibility standards such as eMAG and WCAG levels AA or AAA.
• Font: use clean, sans-serif fonts. Avoid decorative, distorted, or cursive fonts. Use font sizes larger than 12.
• Informative text: use titles, subtitles, captions, and descriptive summaries for charts. Provide alternative text for digital images and graphics.

Accessibility is more than the use of techniques, methodologies, and tools. Accessibility is a principle that should be considered from the emergence of any idea.

Final Information

Innovating means building a future in which all people have the opportunity to participate and thrive, promoting a more inclusive and fair world.

For more materials and content about innovation, visit the LA-BORA! gov portal.

Email: laboragov@gestao.gov.br

LinkedIn: @laboragov

LA-BORA! gov, Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services. Federal Government of Brazil. Union and Reconstruction.