Design. Access All Areas?
How does design go ‘beyond information’ to achieve truly inclusive communication?
Great design transforms public-facing content. Into a resource that makes life more rewarding for everyone.
Once upon a sign …
Back in the pre-swinging 1960s, when the Beatles were still learning their trade in Hamburg and everything closed on Sundays, there were around 5 million private cars on UK roads (there are over 36 million today). The signage for those already overcrowded roads was a mess. Virtually no two signs shared the same design approach. Worse than offending aesthetic purists, this mishmash of different symbols, layouts and fonts was confusing and dangerous.
The government saw the problem. They also recognised the answer wasn’t more police cars or heavier penalties for baffled motorists making mistakes. With real foresight, they tasked designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert to create a single, coherent signage system. The sheer genius of the visual clarity they achieved transformed confusion into cohesion, for every road user.
Kinneir and Calvert’s ground-breaking work lasts to this day, even feeding into digital navigation technologies. Their unified approach for lucid typography, clear symbols and standardised layouts also provided the founding principles of successful accessible design.
Accessible Design Today: Lessons from Signage
Positive transformation of road sign clutter and chatter, into a unified visual vocabulary, helps people. They instantly access the spatial information they need, to get where they want to go.
The same transformation can be achieved, must be achieved, with all public realm materials. School and local authority websites, NHS communication, government guidelines and reports all contain information vital to the success of citizens’ journeys through life. Burying that information within complex layouts, lacking immediacy, simplicity and visual appeal, reduces those chances of success. Accessibility isn’t a niche requirement. It’s the gold standard of effective design.
The Accessibility Imperative
Making design accessible is a shared responsibility. Designers, clients and end audience communities must actively collaborate, through early sharing, testing and iterating, until accessibility is achieved. In the UK, this approach is more than good practice. It falls within legal frameworks such as the Equality Act 2010 and is covered by such standards as WCAG 2.1.
Key principles of accessible, informative and effective public-facing design:
Legible Typography & Hierarchy: Clear fonts and structured headings help users scan and digest information quickly.
High Contrast & Colour Choices: WCAG 2.1 standards ensure visibility for people with impaired vision or colour perception.
Intuitive Icons & Visuals: Just like successful road symbols, all visual elements must communicate meaning instantly to a range of audiences.
Logical Layout & Navigation: Sensible and clear structuring of reports, forms, and websites makes content accessible to and usable by all, including people with cognitive or sensory disabilities.
Small Changes. Big Impact.
Simplicity is radically positive. Even small adjustments improve the accessibility and immediacy of beneficial information. People with neurodiversity, for example, benefit from calm layouts, consistent spacing, and clear visual hierarchy. Designers should therefore look to include these key elements:
Resizable, easily readable text.
Clear headings and spacing.
Legible text for images and charts.
Screen-reader-friendly PDFs and web pages.
Case Study: Natural England Report
Applying these principles, our recent report design for Natural England prioritized accessibility through:
High-contrast typography and clear headings.
Logical reading order and hierarchy.
Clearly differentiated text for all graphics.
Screen-reader-friendly tagging.
The outcome: a public-facing document made accessible to everyone by embracing the philosophy of Kinneir and Calvert’s signage design: clarity, consistency and inclusion.
Closing Thought
From road signage to reports, in print and digital, the lesson is clear: thoughtful, inclusive design transforms, making all information usable, understandable, and equitable. As designers, this is more than our task. Our opportunity and our inspiration must be to make certain that the pursuit of clarity, consistency and inclusivity drives every public-facing project.
Now ask yourself who is potentially excluded by your design today? Look for the practical changes that, no matter how seemingly small, will make big increases in your content’s accessibility and its inclusivity. Bottom line? Accessibility isn’t optional. It defines good design that works for everyone.
Access support to make your content more accessible. Reach out to our expert team and we can help.