The Inclusive Research Game was born out of a question that had been bothering me for some time: how inclusive is our research practice, really? As researchers, we spend so much time trying to understand people, yet we often rely on familiar methods and frameworks without questioning whether the research experience itself works for the people taking part.
The initial spark was surprisingly personal. I was comparing my own daily journal with my daughter's activity diary. Mine was efficient, structured and goal-oriented. Hers invited imagination, drawing and storytelling, and opened up conversations about her thoughts, beliefs and feelings that I might never have reached through direct questions. It made me think about how profoundly the design of a research activity influences what people are able and willing to share.
I wanted to investigate this properly, so I conducted a study with 47 participants across the UK, exploring the experiences of people with visual, hearing, motor, cognitive and other access needs. I followed this with qualitative interviews, including researchers themselves. Some of the stories were genuinely upsetting: participants being rushed, made to feel stupid, struggling with inaccessible technology or being treated as an inconvenience. What struck me was the gap between how inclusive researchers believed their practice to be and how participants actually experienced it.
I turned those findings into a card-based game, first run at UX London in 2022. Players design a research study, then repeatedly adapt it as new information emerges: different participant needs, practical restrictions, facilitator requirements and unexpected disruptions. The idea is to encourage people to question their assumptions, experiment with unfamiliar approaches and discover how much of the research experience can be intentionally designed.
Ultimately, I wanted to make inclusive research something people could learn through doing, questioning and playing together, and leave with ideas they could immediately bring into their own practice. The game is still an early iteration, and I'd love to develop it further.
At UX London 2022, I ran the first iteration of Design your own inclusive research, a hands-on game exploring the choices that shape how inclusive a research study can be.
Afterwards, 35 game participants shared what they enjoyed, what they would change and what they planned to apply in their own practice. I’ve brought their feedback together here to capture what worked, where the experience could be clearer and how the game might develop.
“...everything! the thought provoking tactile game was very challenging and eye opening!”
”...could not hear the others speaking - needed audience mic”
”[One thing I’ll do differently is] consider more things when setting up a research activity! Thank you”
<aside> 💡 My slides from the day:
Aleks Melnikova - Inclusive Research Design - UXLondon2022.pdf
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Separate heartfelt thank you to the wonderful designer who has made the first version of the game and who kept me honest throughout the process: extremely talented Ilaria Oberto ❤️ Love working with you.
Since this workshop, the game had 2 iterations, the exercises matured, and the last round was played in UX Nordic 2024.
