Designing For More Inclusive Entertainment Tech

Jon Kirchner, CEO, Xperi.

getty

My parents were American Sign Language teachers who welcomed students from all over the world into our home. A revolving door of global visitors ensured that I grew up bilingual. But sharing my early life with many whose needs and abilities varied greatly from my own taught me a much larger lesson: Never assume that someone's lived experiences — including their daily challenges — are the same as yours.

This perspective has deeply informed my two decades of work trying to create extraordinary entertainment experiences for all. Entertainment is a constant human need, and entertainment technology should be designed for inclusivity. By this I mean it should meet people where they are — not only in terms of their needs and abilities, but also their cultural backgrounds and even individual preferences.

Here are some ways that technology must continue to evolve to make entertainment more accessible and enjoyable for specific groups, as well as the general public.

Principles Of Inclusive Design

Designing for inclusion, meaning improving the overall quality and impact of the experience for as many people as possible, requires looking at all possible ways to enhance a product's accessibility and resonance. Four principles can guide this process.

1. Technology has to be both familiar and intuitive. Sometimes this means integrating a common physical movement — swiping, for instance. Sometimes it means laying out a process that's easy to follow, with each step naturally leading to the next.

2. A diverse team is needed to create inclusive technology. Cultural diversity is as important as the engagement of those with disabilities, varying lived experiences, and differing communication and decision-making styles. Team members also need extensive knowledge on a variety of domains: specific consumer interest groups, technological trends, product-market fit and engineering. For instance, our teams often must balance creating the best products engineering allows with those that are actually desired and affordable by consumers.

3. Inclusive design can move in two directions. Sometimes, technology developed for the masses winds up augmenting the experience of groups with specific needs. Other times, an enhancement for a specific group ends up improving the experience for a wider group.

I saw this firsthand in my early days at DTS. Over two decades ago, we designed a method for projecting on-demand subtitles in theaters for viewers with hearing impairments, bypassing the expensive process of etching subtitles into the film itself. But our partners quickly realized this product would also have instant appeal in countries where subtitles were an important way to serve a multilingual audience.

4. Perhaps most importantly, users need to be able to customize and personalize their experiences, whether to accommodate different abilities or simply preferences.

In Practice: Boosting The Entertainment Experience

So how are these principles starting to make entertainment easier to find, watch and enjoy?

Sound has a disproportionate impact on how the brain processes experiences, and most consumers consider it critically important to the ente rtainment experience. Who could forget the tension and suspense created by the two-note Jaws score that transformed a largely absent, mechanical shark into a terrifying, lurking predator?

As the CEO of the brand that brought those spine-tingling dinosaur roars to Jurassic Park, I'm very proud of the time we spend considering how to improve sound to create more meaningful experiences. For example, one particular challenge today is that many consumers are increasingly having a hard time understanding the dialogue in shows. In fact, research demonstrates that many people now switch on subtitles when streaming video, even if they speak the language and don't have hearing difficulties.

How can we make sound better for everybody? The industry has been working on different fixes for some time. For example, some companies have developed speakers and soundbars that seek to provide crisper dialogue. Others have tried to address the problem at the content source. But perhaps the most promising answer is the simplest: a volume button on your remote that may soon allow you to perfectly adjust the balance between dialogue and other audio.

Similar personalizations are in the pipeline to help those with visual challenges. As screens offer higher resolution displays with wider color ranges and more pixel control, we'll see more options for customizing aspects like contrast, color balance, sharpness and magnification. For instance, Samsung is working to incorporate individualized controls for these types of features into smart TVs, so consumers can adjust their screens to more effectively accommodate their particular challenges.

Familiar and intuitive interfaces are another avenue to grow accessibility. As technology produces more robust features, it's imperative that navigation remains easy or gets even easier, both physically and mentally, for as many people as possible. Whether on a TV, smartphone, or car screen, that means sequencing menus in obvious ways and reducing the number of clicks needed to find entertainment.

Technology that better understands consumers' individual preferences can make more relevant content recommendations, reducing content overload. And powerful voice search can provide better access to those with visual or other physical impairments, as well as drivers who need to keep attention on the road.

Better For Consumers, Better For Business

There's still a long way to go to achieve inclusivity when it comes to entertainment technology. Ever-increasing computing power and bandwidth that enables more advanced solutions will push this process along. So will the information gleaned from progressively powerful sensors in our devices that will help to better understand the environment, further anticipate audience needs and constantly work to individualize consumer experience.

Although making entertainment accessible is a personal value of mine, it's important to note that it makes good business sense, too. Casting a wide net can have a major return on investment. Customer acquisition is expensive, but people tend to stick around — and even consume more — when you provide them with compelling, immersive and satisfying experiences. The cost of not doing so can be tremendous, driving up churn.

Of course, a company can't be everything to everyone. But it's always possible to find ways to make more impact on your audience and provide better experiences to more people.

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?