The Tyranny of the Average User
Designing for everyone is a shortcut to pleasing no one. If you want true innovation, stop looking at the middle of the bell curve and start looking at the edges.
Cristian Brownlee
Author
There is a specific kind of safety found in a spreadsheet. It is the comfort of the mean, the median, and the "Average User." In boardrooms across Britain, this mythical character is the guest of honour. We are told to design for them, to price for them, and to market to them. It feels like the sensible, low-risk path to commercial success.
The problem is that this person does not exist. They are a statistical ghost, a composite of data points that describes precisely no one. When you design for "everyone" in the middle, you usually end up creating something that is, at best, mildly annoying for 100% of your customers.
I call this the tyranny of the average. If you want to see it in the wild, look no further than the standard hotel shower. It has been designed by a committee to be "functional" for the widest possible demographic. The result? A control panel that requires a degree in code-breaking, a temperature dial that moves from "arctic" to "third-degree burns" with a millimetre of movement, and a shower head that requires the height of a professional basketball player to adjust.
Most people just sigh and tolerate the friction. They assume that’s just how life is. But from where I sit: literally, in a wheelchair: I don’t see a minor inconvenience. I see a failure of logic. My "battlefield" experience as a T4 paraplegic has taught me that when a system fails at the margins, it is actually a poorly designed system for everyone. We’ve just been conditioned to accept the mediocrity of the middle.
The Genius of the Margin
Innovation does not live in the comfortable centre of the bell curve. It lives at the edges, where the constraints are the most punishing. When you solve a problem for the "edge case," you aren't just helping a niche group. You are stress-testing your design for the real world.
In the world of space systems, which I spend a fair bit of time researching, we look at "critical failure data." We ask: what happens during a hull breach? What happens when gravity is removed from the equation? If a process is resilient enough to survive a vacuum, it will thrive in a climate-controlled office. We don't design for the "average day" in orbit: we design for the most extreme constraint.
Business leaders should do the same. Take the classic example of the OXO Good Grips vegetable peeler. It wasn't born from a focus group of average home cooks. It was created because the designer’s wife had arthritis and found standard peelers impossible to use. By solving for an "extreme" physical constraint, they created a chunky, ergonomic handle that was better for everyone: children, professional chefs, and people with wet hands alike. They found a goldmine by looking at the margins.
"Constraints aren't the walls that box you in: they are the scaffolding that allows you to build something higher."
Friction as a Diagnostic Tool
At Rise Beyond Barriers, we treat disability and neurodivergence not as a "compliance cost," but as a high-value asset class. Why? Because people who navigate a world not built for them are natural-born innovators. We are the ultimate focus group for friction. We see the "design crimes" that spreadsheet logic ignores.
When you hire someone who thinks differently or moves differently, you aren't just ticking a diversity box. You are bringing in a specialist who can identify where your processes are brittle. If your recruitment process is so rigid that a brilliant neurodivergent mind can't navigate it, then your process is likely boring and inefficient for your "standard" hires too. You just haven't realised it yet because they are too polite to tell you.
The Competitive Edge
If you want to build something that people actually love: something that generates genuine delight rather than just "satisfaction": you must stop chasing the statistical ghost. The middle of the market is crowded, beige, and forgettable.
Instead, try this:
- Identify your most "difficult" user or your most punishing constraint.
- Solve for that specific, extreme problem with total focus.
- Watch as the benefits "curb-cut" their way back to the mainstream.
When you build for the margins, you create universal value. The "tyranny of the average" is a trap for the unimaginative. Real commercial opportunity lies in the friction. It’s time we started using it as leverage.