Target Inclusive Design Playbook

DEI Strategy • Operational Excellence • Craft Elevation

Goal

Establish best practices for the Target UX team to uphold and perpetuate design inclusive experiences for customers, Team Members, and Business Partners.

Challenges

  • Inclusion is one of Target’s three core values, yet our definition and practice of this value for UX was limited to Accessibility

  • Inconsistencies across UX teams ranging from inclusive practices in every part of their process to minimal efforts elsewhere

  • Our guests experienced inconsistencies between what Target says and what Target does

My Approach

  • Establish a baseline of the team’s current understanding of inclusive design practices

  • Playbook should address all disciplines of UX and multi-faceted definition of inclusion, including gender, age, economic, social, and culture

  • Partner with organizational leaders for strategic alignment and visibility

Establish a Baseline

We surveyed the UX Team of ~100 people to establish a baseline.

From this, we identified our key measures of success:

  • Clarity of expectations

    • baseline 2.93 (out of 5)

    • goal 4 (out of 5) in first year

  • Usage

    • baseline (none)

    • goal 4 in first year

survey results 2022

Vision Setting

To communicate the importance and breadth of this body of work, we created a comprehensive and aspirational mission statement.

Playbook: Best Practices

Architecture of a Best Practice

To make this documentation self-serve for designers to come back to as an ongoing resource, each best practice includes:

  • What it is

  • Situational example

  • Side-by-side Do This vs Not This examples

  • Why it matters

Where it makes sense, we included links to external supporting documentation.

Each Best Practice includes a form to submit an edit to maintain an open feedback loop with the team as the documentation evolves.

Product Design & Design Systems Example

Content Design Example

Accessibility Example

UX Research Example

Outcomes

  • 60 Best Practices for Product Design, Content Design, Accessibility and UX Research

  • High team member satisfaction from training


    Completion and trainings occurring Q2 2023 with a follow up survey to measure clarity and understanding

“Wow! I’m so impressed with how practical, accessible, and comprehensive this is! I know so much more already and can’t wait to start using this.”
— Product Designer