“In her book, “Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design”, Kat Holmes recounts a wartime example of how a rigid approach to design can go wrong.

America’s Air Force took the bodily measurements of its pilots and used the average to design the cockpit.

After many unexpected crashes, a researcher took ten of the most important measures and found out how many of 4,000 pilots matched all of them.

The answer: zero.

Instead of forcing everyone to conform to the average, the best approach was to make the seat adjustable.” (The Economist, 2018, p.62).

Reference

The Economist. (2018) Bartleby. Better by Design: How Companies Can Make Work Far Easier for Disabled Employees, If They Want To. The Economist. 03 November 2018, p.62.