Curb Cut Effect — When someone’s solution helps everyone

I’ve been studying UX Design, and I’ve seen The Curb-Cut Effect, which makes me think about how something made for a specific user or problem can help everyone.

Let’s see an example:

Curb-cut was originally made for people who use wheelchairs, and this works great; however, through time, people began using them for carrying things, bikers, and strollers to get on the sidewalk. This wasn’t planned; it only happened during the time when more people were using them.

Another popular scenario is the closed captions (CC) that we can see in short videos, for example, in TikTok or Instagram Reels. Well, they were introduced on TV to allow deaf people to watch TV shows by reading the captions, but for an unintended side effect, those captions helped to follow programs in noisy places such as bars or restaurants. Nowadays, those have become popular in short videos, where people watch them everywhere in silent situations, for example, in public transportation or crowded places, to avoid annoying others. Additionally, captions are a way to capture the user’s attention. The movement in the closed captions increases retention in videos.

Why is this important for UX?
This is important from my point of view because we can take advantage of designs we made, particularly when we are developing something for a specific user or problem. We should test and get feedback, especially in the research stage, to detect an opportunity area for our product or service.

Probably in the short term, we wouldn’t be able to notice it, but it would be great to be conscious of this and stay continuously researching or getting feedback about our product or service. We could get a good surprise!

Thanks for reading!