Human Diversity: A Limit or an Opportunity in the Maritime Design Domain?

Abstract

The complexity of contemporary society can be described also through the diversity between individuals, expressed not only in terms of mental and physical capabilities, but also with respect to social and cultural differences. Diversity, however, can be considered as a limit or a resource for the economic development of society. Design for inclusion has already shown that confront the human diversity, in a different way than traditional ergonomics has done so far, represents a major opportunity in the first place for business, becoming an extraordinary lever of communication, expanding the market dimensions, differentiating the production and retaining customers, but more importantly, it determines a positive effect for the entire social system and for the collective well-being. This inclusive and participatory approach to design, is growing also in the specialized productive sector of maritime transportation design. The paper offers a critical reflection on the need to confront the issues of inclusion and participation in the design of products, systems and services related to specialist areas such as maritime transportation. Through synthetic remarks about good practices, we highlight the benefits and opportunities that the spread of a design approach considering human diversity can determine also for the maritime transportation domain.

Keywords: Human diversity, Maritime Domain, Maritime Transportation, Design for Inclusion

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100718