Kat Holmes

Director UX Design, Google, and founder , Mismatch.design

Kat Holmes, named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” in 2017, is founder of mismatch.design, a firm dedicated to inclusive design resources and education. She served as the Principal Director of Inclusive Design at Microsoft from 2014-2017, and led that company’s executive program for inclusive product innovation. Her award-winning toolkit was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. In 2018, Holmes joined Google and continues to advance inclusive development for some of the most influential technologies in the world. She is the author of Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design.

Session Track: Computer Aided Design (CAD)

Tuesday, June 11 2:15 pm – 3:00 pm Ballroom East

Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design

It may not be immediately obvious what the business case is for shifting toward inclusion, but the market opportunity is exponential. Consider the objects and tools around you: the adjustable chair at your desk, reading glasses, the touchscreen on your mobile device, your computer keyboard, email, flexible straws. All of these are ubiquitous and deeply integrated into our daily lives. But did you know that these tools are descendants of innovations that were created to remedy exclusion? In an ideal world, every product or solution would be employ inclusive design from the start. But there is no one-size-fits-all approach to practicing inclusive design. Each company needs to incorporate inclusive design when and where it can in ways that complement its existing processes.

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