Designing more innovative products and services in particular calls for an approach that merges user-centred design, inclusive design and ergonomics. This means engaging with consumers from early on in new product development – rather than simply presenting a prototype for testing right at the end. More significant design changes are possible this way.
Business Gateway’s free guide to designing for your customers explains how user-centred, inclusive design can support social equality and broaden your customer base. The introduction of anti-discrimination laws and the ageing UK population mean that designing against exclusion is becoming a more pressing priority for businesses.
Am I eligible?
Yes, if you are thinking about starting, or already run, a business in Scotland.
What does this cost?
This is a free and impartial service.
Who is this for?
Any business based in Scotland, at any stage in its life cycle.
How long does this take?
Set aside 10 minutes to read Business Gateway’s guide to designing for your customers.
Important information
Always design with inclusion in mind. It’s important to avoid excluding users who are less mobile or dexterous, less affluent or less tech-savvy, or who belong to cultural minorities.
Next steps
Visit the Business Gateway website for more advice on designing for your customers.
This website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of this website. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
Cookies help the delivery partners of Find Business Support (“us” or “we”) to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website, and also allow us to improve our website. We assume that you are happy to receive all the cookies in the categories that you elect to allow, or which are strictly necessary for the operation of our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time.
Strictly necessary cookies
These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log in to secure areas of our website.
Cookie name
Purpose
Expiry
SE_FBS_Necessary_AllowedCookies
This cookie is used to record your preferences in regard to accepting marketing, performance or functionality cookies across the site.
1 year
se_session
This cookie is used to provide secure access to Scottish Enterprise website features such as address lookup and form validation/submissions.
When browser is closed
Performance and analytics cookies
These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works – for example, by ensuring that users can find what they are looking for easily.
Third party service
Purpose
Where to find out more
Google Analytics
Google Analytics helps us analyse the behaviour of users on our site, such as which pages they view, how long they spend on each page, and which elements they interact with.
Hotjar helps us analyse the behaviour of users on our site by collating data into heatmaps, scrollmaps and other visual representations. It also allows us to add short surveys to the site.
This website will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies set by this or any third party websites, you can do so through your browser settings. The Help function in your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit the About cookies websiteopens in a new window, which contains comprehensive information about cookies and how to restrict or delete cookies on a wide variety of browsers.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact the functionality of the website.
All our websites use a number of suppliers who set cookies on our behalf in order to deliver the services they provide. We constantly review our use of cookies, and this cookies policy will be regularly renewed to include up-to-date information about the cookies used by our suppliers. We highly recommend that you check this page on a regular basis for updates.