Design for Inclusion

AHFE International

Accelerating Open Access Science in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Centered Computing

Design for Inclusion

book-cover

Editors: Pepetto Di Bucchianico

Topics: Design for Inclusion

Publication Date: 2022

ISBN: 978-1-958651-21-6

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001862

Articles

Design for Inclusive Attitude: towards a theoretical framework

Seventy one percent of the world’s population live in countries where inequality has grown and the pandemic increased socioeconomic disparities and discriminations. As emphasised in education, healthcare, and migration, fostering an Inclusive Attitude is needed. The Inclusive Attitude is a concept mainly debated in psychology, sociology, anthropology and it has received less attention from a design research perspective. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for using Design for Inclusion to support Inclusive Attitude among the society. Starting from literature review, the paper compares the Inclusive Attitude concept with orders of design, design contents, design domains, continuum of design approaches, and domains of disciplines of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE). As a result, a conceptual framework is identified for studying the Design for Inclusive Attitude. Discussions and conclusions underline the essence of this new design approach.

Daniele Busciantella-Ricci, Carlos Aceves-Gonzalez, Alessandra Rinaldi

Conference Proceedings

Teaching Eco Inclusive Design. An innovative educational path

In the contemporary scenario, a substantial change is taking place: everyone now has the perception of the finiteness of natural resources (which are not unlimited and which must be preserved), combined with some demographic phenomena in progress (such as demographic pressure in some areas of the world and the aging of the population in other areas). All issues that refer to the broader issue of sustainability.So, wanting to prefigure a possible and desirable scenario, what scenario do we imagine for the coming decades? What will be the challenges, the demands of the near future, to which designers will be called to respond through their projects? What kind of training is required for them?The paper describes a recently launched teaching experience on the theme of eco-inclusive design. It is a new Master's Degree course, entirely structured in educational laboratories and workshops, to train experts in the processes of innovation of products, services, communication artifacts and strategic systems for environmental sustainability and for the emerging sector of social inclusion.

Giuseppe Di Bucchianico

Conference Proceedings

Responsive and Flexible Systems for the Non-typical User: A Design Methodology to Observe the Outliers

The concept “non-typical users” comprises people who experience significant digital gaps that alienate them from the benefits of technology. This issue is commonly experienced as unsatisfying interactions with technological products or devices that show not flexible possibilities as a core feature. Accordingly, this research contemplates including the needs and priorities of the non-typical users as design requirements for technological devices. The outcome of applying these considerations might allow a deeper understanding of the best way for companies and designers to cope with present changes and challenges towards a more sustainable and inclusive future. The findings will assemble a design methodology that considers usability issues, providing alternatives for the design team.

Inés Alvarez-Icaza Longoria, Sergio Navarro Tuch, Rogelio Bustamante-Bello, Arturo Molina, Ariel Lopez Aguilar

Conference Proceedings

An AI-Assisted Design Method for “Huayao Cross-stitch” Patterns Based on Semantics

Huayao cross-stitch is one of the first intangible cultural heritage in China, providing a rich source of aesthetic and cultural connotations for creative design.Construction of a database serves as an effective measure to strengthen the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. However, the effective reuse of the digital resources relies on the explorations and investigation of their cultural elements. Based on the cultural background of “pictorial artworks from Chinese traditional patterns all have meanings intended”, this paper takes “Huayao cross-stitch” patterns as an example to analyze their aesthetics. It proposes a transformation path for AI-assisted design and establishes a pattern semantic segmentation system and uses word2vec algorithm to strengthen the search system, uses pix2pix model and random algorithm to color and intelligently generate images, and explores the method of AI-assisted design without losing the traditional charm of “Huayao cross-stitch” patterns. This study can provide new ideas for the reuse of digital cultural resource and promote the value of ethnic patterns in modern times.

Junchun Chen, Tie Ji, Jian Peng, Bin Wang

Conference Proceedings

A contemporary investigation into anthropometric dimensions and applications for design 70 years after the publication of "The Average Man"

In 1952, Gilbert S. Daniels published his seminal report “The ’Average Man’?” which examined the measurements of 4,063 active United States Air Force personnel (Daniels. 1952). This report detailed a profound yet simple finding: that after eliminating for ten common anthropometric measurements, no one person meets the average for all body dimensions. We analyzed Two anthropometric data bases over two studies, following an updated version of Daniels’ (1952) original method. The biggest changes were not eliminating the top and bottom percentiles of the population, and adjusted the calculation to find middle 25-30%. The databases examined were ANSUR II (Gorden et al., 2014) and CAESAR (Robinette et al., 2002), to see how civilian and military populations compare. The results of both studies were generally consistent with Daniels (1952), however we did discover that some individuals were able to meet the criteria for average after ten measurements. The best performance took place in the ANSUR II combined condition, all three individuals were men. This last part is especially important to note, as the combined sample eliminated women out of the sample faster than men. Being eliminated after the sixth measurement. This confirms a potential bias to combining men’s and women’s measurements without great care. Based on our analysis of modern anthropometric databases using Daniels’ original method it is clear that, while we found some “average people”, the significance of its findings holds true. This is not to say we should ignore the average, but we should understand its use in context and strive to go beyond it. Thinking past a formative understanding of how people are shaped, and instead into what is needed to create well-fitting products for a specific population. Examples spanning several industries merely scratch the surface of what needs to be addressed. Looking around as we go through our day, minor and major inconveniences become apparent. They cannot be all fixed at once, but through diligent research and thoughtful design we can use the principles of universal design to our advantage. Looking ahead to the next 70 years, a continued growth in optimizing products for the individual user and helping these users understand why these optimizations matter is not just desirable, but important.

Robert Pettys Baker, Jerritt Smith, Megan Clarke, Emily Cook, Baonhia Xiong, Minji Yu, Linsey Griffin

Conference Proceedings

PLEINAIR project: participatory methodologies to validate and integrate product concepts with young users

This contribution describes the final part of the development process of PLEINAIR (Free and Inclusive Parks in Networks for Recreational and Physical Intergenerational Activity), a two-years multidisciplinary research project financed by the POR FESR 2014-2020 program regulated by Emilia Romagna Region in Italy.The PLEINAIR project aims to develop a smart outdoor park, specifically designed for encouraging positive socio-recreational interactions among different generations and for promoting the adoption of active lifestyles for all and at any stage of their life.This is because, according to WHO, sedentary lifestyle is increasing worldwide and it risks to produce more cardiovascular diseases compared to the past, but also because most of the urban parks nowadays are composed of arbitrary and selective areas that do not stimulate interaction between different generations.The purpose of PLEINAIR is to provide real solutions through operational products called OSOs (Outdoor Smart Objects). Monitoring a series of parameters – through an IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) infrastructure – related to people’s motor or ludic activities, the OSOs aim to find the most suitable and customizable motivational strategies to stimulate a positive health lifestyle for any user at any age.PLEINAIR is based on a Human-Centered Design approach and it utilizes participative Co-Design techniques to discover and satisfy the real needs of people.Due to the COVID-19, the first part of the needs analysis was conducted remotely. Despite there were no chances to interact with users in person, the on-line activities collected many insights to develop the early concepts of the OSOs.When the Italians lockdown restrictions in public education were temporally less severe, two Co-Design workshops were organized involving two schools in Province of Bologna, Italy, to collaboratively validate and refine the concept ideas with young users.Considering this, the paper describes two Co-Design activities performed in both schools.The first workshop collaborated with an elementary school and it was divided in two parts: the first stage collected the children’s and expectations about the OSOs’ early concepts through a visual questionnaire; the second stage used free drawing to collect children’s ideas, dreams and expectations about their personal concepts of PLEINAIR outdoor park.The second workshop involved an high school and it was divided in three main round tables, each one focused on a specific aspect of the PLAINAIR IoTM system: the first table co-designed the graphical interface and the navigation system of PLAINAIR application; the second table co-designed and co-validated the motivational strategies that the app uses to encourage people to improve their health conditions; the third table co-designed digital and analogic interactions for dialoguing with the OSOs. The activities were based on an open debate and free drawing session because they let young users free to express themselves around the three themes of the workshop. The final results produced qualitative data that were difficult to collect during the remote activities and they were used, as guidelines, to improve many aspects of the User Experience of the PLEINAIR IoTM system.

Giuseppe Mincolelli, Gian Andrea Giacobone, Michele Marchi

Conference Proceedings

Inclusive Autonomous Vehicle Interior Design (IAVID) Platform

Passenger comfort in vehicles is a complex, human-centric segment of the vehicle interior design. Designing an ergonomic vehicle requires incorporating a wide range of interdisciplinary information as an input in the development process. Novel autonomous technologies offer possibilities for achieving increased comfort and safety. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) present an opportunity for redefining the standard design approaches by providing options for improved ergonomics and meeting the needs of a wide range of users, among which are persons with impairments. Persons with impairments are likely to be the early adopters of AVs due to the fact that these vehicles can allow them to travel independently and become more involved in social activities. However, this brings a new challenge for designers who need to combine universal design principles and recommendations for inclusion, in addition to ergonomic principles, vehicle standards and regulations, technological advancements, as well as design trends, in order to provide fully ergonomic, and accessible modern vehicle models. The difficulty of following and including all this trans-disciplinary knowledge in the vehicle development process requires finding a suitable method to systematize the data and simplify their use.This paper aims to propose a platform for inclusive autonomous vehicle interior design (IAVID) which will upgrade the usual design principles in a manner that they can support the creation of ergonomic and inclusive AV interiors. The proposed IAVID platform is based on systems engineering (SE) and model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and is intended for organizing and constantly updating all relevant interdisciplinary information needed as an input in the AV interior development. The constant updating of information can enable continuous recognition of the changing needs and the formulations of new directions to which future research should be aimed at. To achieve this, the proposed platform is composed of separate databases for the design input information from different fields. The information in the databases can be constantly refreshed and linked with the AV interior subsystems (components) in order to define the characteristics that those subsystems need to possess in order to satisfy their main functions. The hierarchy of the AV systems and subsystems at different levels, as well as the functions they need to achieve are generated by applying SE methods. The MBSE methods, on the other hand, are used to represent the proposed platform by model that can easily be understood by programmers and be directly applied in the field of informatics using a suitable programming language.This platform is intended to be used as a tool mainly for industrial designers who often lack expertise in technological and engineering domains of product design and they might have limited knowledge of design for inclusion. The use of the proposed IAVID platform provides a way to bridge the knowledge gaps. All the information provided by the platform can also be available to all the members of the interdisciplinary development team, which as a result will facilitate their communication and strengthen the link between all stakeholders. By doing so, the interdisciplinary collaboration among vehicle development teams can be strengthened.

Elena Angeleska, Marija Sidorenko, Sofija Sidorenko, Paolo Pretto

Conference Proceedings

Genderless Fashion Design: from binary fashion to bio-segmentation. Body biotypes and somatotypes as main bases to inclusive fashion design

In this moment in history, products cannot only be about aesthetics, quality, and fabrics.The design process begins long before the idealization of a creation and its mandatory for professionals and brands to comprehend the weight of values,content and concept to the user, and use them to express and educate all consumeers. This paper aims to recognize, clarify, and document the specific subject of bio-segmentation: body somatotypes and biotypes, as the new base of construction in fashion design, instead of basing it in binary genders. For this, mind mapping, brainstorming organization charts, observation, stakeholder maps and surveys will be used to help in the structuring of this paper.Somatotypes are the three types of bodies that everybody has, women and men: ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Ectomorph is the leaner somatotype, with a light and narrow bone structure.Mesomorph is the athletic one, men with inverted triangle biotypes, and women with hourglass biotypes are usually in this category. Lastly, the endomorph somatotype, is the most common one, has a slow metabolic system propitious to fat increase. As to biotypes, there is six female ones (triangle, rectangle, diamond, oval, inverted triangle, and hourglass), and five male ones (triangle, rectangle, trapeze, oval, and inverted triangle), from which four match, meaning that there are only seven in total to build the segmentation system form.Gender issues, genderless fashion design, sustainability, inclusion, and ethics are some themes of relevance to new generations, and it is imperative to find new ways to stop them from remaining social stigmas. So,we suggest a new segmentation method that divides fashion and patterns through biotypes and somatotypes. It is also a goal to try to understand and predict how to reinvent design to fit this ideal and which are the essential modifications that need to be do be done the current design production, making this issue a relevant phase of the design process.We aim to promote some relevant research, helping genderless fashion to become a viable way for brands to stop making binary divisions, boosting the end of acceptance of sexist social norms and culture as well as the stigmatization of gender issues.We hope, that after this purpose is accomplished the real meaning of freedom will be achievable in clothing and fashion.

Maria João Pereira Neto, Maria Inês Leal

Conference Proceedings

Design of a devices’ system with tangible interface aimed to an inclusive smart working experience and wellbeing

In Europe, the demographic profile is towards an increasingly aged workforce [1], characterized by a significant aging of the population. The people aged 55 years or more accounted for one fifth of the total workforce, and as one consequence of increasing longevity, must work more years before retirement [2].Aging of the workforce is a growing problem for many developed and developing countries, pushing companies to explore ways to keep older workers employed for a longer period of time and to support them to maintain their work ability and increase their employability. The literature shows that “age related factors should be taken into consideration in daily management, including work arrangements and individual work tasks, so that everybody, regardless of age, feels empowered in reaching their own and corporate goals” [3].At the same rhythm with these challenges related to the ageing workforce, the work itself is undergoing technological upgrading driven by digitization. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have radically determined the modification of people's habits and lifestyles, also in the field of work, introducing new methods of working for example the smart working. These evolving work methods required smart workers to acquire new professional skills in a short time and to adapt to new technologies, new work processes and new forms of collaboration. All these changes lead to greater difficulties, especially for aged smart workers, such as: i) lack of physical interactions and the resulting isolation; ii) increased workload and consequently increased stress (always on); iii) difficulties in communication and time management problems; iv) work-life balance and personal life problems. Therefore it emerges the need to design innovative and friendly devices to address the challenges and difficulties mentioned above, facilitating interaction between smart workers, time management and work organization. These innovative devices and systems need to be easy to use and intuitive to learn in order to increase the inclusion of the aging smart workers, reducing the digital divide.Tangible User Interfaces could represent a fertile ground with the greatest potential to tackle these challenges as they give physical form to digital information and computation, and at the same time they facilitate the direct manipulation of bits. Unlike GUIs, where human-machine interaction occurs through the use of a mouse, keyboard or touchpad and is displayed on a screen as interaction’s results, the use of TUIs involves direct interaction with physical objects to which digital information has been associated, within a defined action space.In this context, the challenge is how ICT-embedded solutions, particularly Tangible User Interfaces, can meet the needs of a growing number of ageing smart worker in terms of inclusion, and of social, physical and mental wellbeing to sustain a team spirit, maintain team cohesion by offering sensory user experience and a tactile interaction with digitized work.The general objective of the research project presented in this article is to develop ICT-embedded devices based on TUIs, aimed at aging smart workers, with following objectives:fostering communication and interaction with the digital world through a tactile experience;increasing the organization, motivation, and job satisfaction; promoting work-life balance to increase physical and mental wellbeing. The result consists of a digital devices’ system, that can interact with each other and with users through a dedicated application for mobile. The system allows to improve the smart workers experience and their well-being through:empowerment, with the introduction of a "digital personal coach" who accompanies the worker during the performance of the activities;enhancement of concentration by providing for the performance of only one activity at a time to increase the overall efficiency of the worker;work-life balance improvement, with a better management of the balance between working and private dimensions;communication and collaboration facilitation with other colleagues;reduction of technological abundance through the use of tangible interfaces;exploitation of peripheral interaction to reduce the risk of loss of concentration during activities.1.European Commission - Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs: The 2015 Ageing Report. Underlying Assumptions and Projection Methodologies. European Economy 8-2014 (2014). 2.Giakoumis, D., Votis, K., Altsitsiadis, E., Segkouli, S., Paliokas, I., & Tzovaras, D.: Smart, personalized and adaptive ICT solutions for active, healthy and productive ageing with enhanced workability. In: 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, pp. 442-447. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2019).3.Ilmarinen, J. (2012). Promoting active ageing in the workplace. European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

Davide Di Bella, Kiana Kianfar, Alessandra Rinaldi

Conference Proceedings

In-vehicles interfaces development and elderly habits: a possible encounter

Nowadays the world is getting older and more populated. This is mainly due to several factors: the aging of the baby boomer generation; the extended longevity, the decreased birth rate as well as a period of relative peace all over the world. (Fatima, K., & Moridpour, S. (2019).Nevertheless, while the extended life expectancy can be considered an achievement for the human race, on the other hand, it also involves several challenges, for instance, maintaining economic productivity, health care programs, and public pension benefits. Furthermore, an ageing society means a population that requires higher costs in public health care and other services (News, K., & Lives, H. 2018).Aging society is a factor which involves all the field of the world and mobility is for sure not an exception. Especially for elderly people, Mobility is fundamental to active aging and is intimately linked to health status and quality of life. (Webber, S. C., Porter, M. M., & Menec, V. H. 2010) (Fatima, K., & Moridpour, S. (2019), (Johnson,et al. 2017).While the world is aging, the field of automotive is undergoing profound transformation. Despite the fact that the current situation can be described as a VUCA situation which stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, all automotive experts agree on a completely renewed automotive future 2030 characterized by: the spread of electric and connected vehicles, the use of partially or fully automated vehicles; a loss of centrality of vehicle ownership in favor of a mobility service. All changes can be summarized under the acronym MADE which indicates: New Models of Mobility, Autonomous Driving, Digitization, Electrification. Especially considering the forecasts for future growth volumes and the intensity of technological discontinuity, electronics is certainly the sector that will grow the most: especially in the areas of Infotainment and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System).Roland Berger(2020)While the introduction of new technologies can be a good marketing and profit-enhancing tool for a company, it must be considered that such changes are more influenced by financial reasons than by user desirability issues. For this reason, in a world where innovation is very fast, introducing new features could be very interesting for a young population but a hindrance for older people. In fact, according to several studies people with or above 65 years old are more averse to using new tools and interfaces since the use of these would involve, at least in a first phase, errors and embarrassing situations that are hardly tolerated (Arch et al 2008; Hill et al 2015; Raimundo and Da Silvana Santana 2014; Zajicek 2001). This is also confirmed by the fact that older people prefer familiar and known steps differently from young people who usually like to explore new solutions (Pernice et al 2013)For this reason, this contribution analyzes the current in-vehicles HMI trends to provide possible improvement points to improve elderly travelling experience and verify possible encounters between the fast development of the automotive industry and the mobility of elderly people.

Filippo Petrocchi, Gian Andrea Giacobone, Giuseppe Mincolelli

Conference Proceedings

Dynamic worktop for highly inclusive kitchens: Design for All (DfA) solution for product innovation in the kitchen furniture’s area

In the field of Product design, basic and applied research addresses the issue of inclusion through a theoretical-methodological and experimental development approach, aimed at specific user groups with personal needs (anthropometric, postural and use) or with reduced possibility of action and movement.Thus, the solutions and product innovations on the market are mostly partial, specialized and hyper-functional, and they don’t consider, as far as possible, everyone's needs through an inclusive approach to the project.Today, the culture of design evolves towards Design for All (DfA). It is the design for human diversity, social inclusion and equality (EIDD Declaration of Stockholm, 2004), which aims, instead, to extend the active and autonomous, comfortable and pleasant use of products to the widest variety of subjects, different from each other for culture or perceptive, motor and cognitive abilities.In this problematic context and in the perspective of the transition towards social inclusion, this paper proposes a discussion and a theoretical-critical reflection on the application of DfA tools and methods and presents the results of the elaboration and experimental development referred to a dynamic Top concept for a highly inclusive kitchen. The aim of this research is to prefigure a kitchen system able to offer users a more inclusive and personalized access, to respond to the cognitive and physical needs of the different possible targets, in an equitable way and without creating ghettoizations or specializations, to modify and adapt its own characteristics over time in order to guarantee a socially inclusive use.In particular, the studio is critically confronted with the experiences that take place in many parts of the world that develop and manufacture more accessible products in the kitchen supplies sector, to arrive at the development of a concept of a highly inclusive kitchen worktop by applying the methodology of DfA.The design process activities concern a pre-concept phase for the identification of problematic nodes, and, by means of an anthropometric verification, of the size and minimum dimensions of the product.This is followed by a phase of generation and selection of the most promising ideas to come finally, in the final phase, to the development of the product concept and a subsequent empirical validation of the degree of innovation achieved through virtual models and scale prototypes.The concept of a typically innovative kitchen worktop for all, represents the starting point and the methodological basis for the search for new solutions in the various areas of Product design, able of responding effectively to the pressing and urgent questions posed by inclusive society. The result demonstrates the concrete possibility of overcoming the concept of design for disability by proposing as an alternative a design for all approach that promotes equality and equity of use.

Antonio Marano, Ivo Spitilli, Giuseppe Di Bucchianico

Conference Proceedings

Trend analysis of research hotspots in the field of universal design based on CiteSpace knowledge graph

Taking the academic papers related to universal design research from 2010 to 2020 in the Web of Science core collection database as the research object, using the scientific metrology software Citespace to review the development context of this field, it is found that the research in the field of universal design in the past ten years has been concentrated in The following five aspects (1) urban environment (2) product design (3) education and teaching (4) human-computer interaction (5) society and policy. Research and application in these fields directly reflect the diversified application value of universal design. This research also combines the literature content analysis method to make prospects for the emerging development trends in this field to provide ideas for related research at home and abroad.

Xin Ye, Qian Ji, Zhou Fang, Min Wan

Conference Proceedings

How to co-design with older adults on community-level behavior change interventions: insights from a rapid review

Given the unclear long-term effect and use of interventions for active aging, it is urgent and important to understand the facilitators and barriers via co-design with older adults at the community level. This study aims to lay the theoretical background on developing toolkits for co-designing community-based behavior change interventions with older adults. Rapid reviews were conducted in three disciplines to understand i) the effective behavioral change techniques for older adults, ii) how to co-design with older adults for community-based interventions, and iii) how to design tools for behavior change that are easy-to-use for older adults. The outcomes are a list of effective behavioral change techniques for older adults; guidelines for co-designing with older adults on community-based interventions; and a checklist for developing user-friendly tools for designing behavior change. These elements will serve as the foundation for developing the toolkit on co-designing with older adults for community-based behavior change interventions.

Gubing Wang, Dena Kasraian Moghaddam, Carlijn Valk, Yuan Lu, Pieter Van Wesemael

Conference Proceedings

Inclusive Design Strategies for Hybrid Space with Conflicts between Economic Space and Life Space: A Case in Guangzhou

In recent years, increasing number of historical and cultural districts are planned top-down as economic space in China. New economic activities have proliferated in these areas, even though original residents, some of them elderly, still live there. These new activities increase the complexity of such districts and bring about a series of conflicts, such as conflicts between economic space and life space and between visitors and residents. Hybrid space, which is a mixture of economic space and life space, is essential because it provides leisure zones for people to live, relax, communicate and consume in. However, inclusive design for hybrid space is seldom discussed. Using Yong Qing Fang-a historical and cultural area of Guangzhou-as a case study, this research defines ‘hybrid space’ and explores the conflicts between economic space and life space within hybrid space. By adopting the qualitative research methods of field observations, three types of conflicts of hybrid space are addressed and the barriers to and opportunities for inclusive design strategies for hybrid space are identified. Based on these findings, some suggestions are provided for researchers, urban planners and policy-makers to consider in combining the economic space and life space within hybrid districts in an inclusive way, and a framework is presented for the evaluate of inclusive design for hybrid space.

Yong Yu Zhang, Jia Xin Xiao, Ming Jun Luo, Guan Yun Li

Conference Proceedings

Design intervention and behaviour change: Implications for inclusive public design to promote sustainable behaviour

Sustainable behaviour is the basis of social and environmental sustainability. In everyday practice, public facilities can play an important role in promoting such behaviour. Determining how city users understand and use public facilities is crucial to design for sustainability. Drawing on the literature on behavioural change, this study investigates the relationship between design interventions and user behaviour through an analysis of everyday life scenarios in open spaces. Taking public design in Guangzhou, China as a case study, the study examines how intervention strategies affect behaviour through public facilities. We explore how these effects vary with intervention intensity and how city users respond accordingly. The study develops a framework to illustrate the relationship between behaviour change and design intervention, which reveals that changes to user behaviour can be realised through several approaches, depending on the level of intensity of the intervention. The study also analyses each type of intervention based on the dimensions of effectiveness and user acceptance. Finally, from the perspective of inclusiveness, design interventions should be multidimensional and integrated to help achieve long-term sustainability.

Yi Ming Li, Jia Xin Xiao, Ming Jun Luo

Conference Proceedings

Design-enabled innovation in smart city context. Fostering social inclusion through intercultural interaction

Generating design-enabled innovation implies the identification of social, technological, and cultural changes taking place nowadays and of the opportunities offered by the digital transformation, which enters these processes, playing an important role in all areas of contemporary life, from urban, domestic, health and services in general.In our era, the ambient intelligence pervades objects such as cities; electronic perception systems collect information and data from us, trying to understand our needs and give us answers. Cities are real living laboratories for experimenting new technologies on an urban scale.Big Data management represents one of the critical points of the ongoing revolution. The data can give information about people, understand behaviors, change city policies and so on. Big Data represent a qualitative leap in digital culture; nothing exists in Big Data before questions, explained De Kerckhove [1].“It is also and above all a cognitive revolution, where the answer no longer comes from the question. The large amount of data that comes from the pervasive use of technology already contains all the answers, but it has no value if it is not interrogated with the right questions. As McLuhan says, when all the answers are at hand, it's only the question that matters" [1].The perspective is then reversed: the first step in making society smarter is not to collect as much data as possible or develop an infallible algorithm, but it is necessary to identify the relevant expectations and needs in and for that society and ask the right questions, and to investigate what it represents, in the collective imagination, the quality of life and what technology can generate as a response.The project presented starts from the observation that we are faced with a strong migratory and global tourism flows that are affecting European cities, placing us in front of a growing multiculturalism in urban areas, with consequent issues related to the inclusion of cultural diversity and dialogue. The landscape of cities in many European countries has changed significantly, and the use of public space and services is no longer suited to the needs of multicultural citizens. This phenomenon has developed rapidly, without an adaptation of social policies, services, and spaces to emerging needs, creating evident problems of inclusion and dialogue between different cultures.Digital technologies and ubiquitous computing systems offer many opportunities for designing products and services aimed at increase interaction, collect, and share information, knowledge, emotions, experiences, through platforms that support the increase of social awareness.The research investigates how to use digital technologies and which design strategies and creative, communicative and process paths can be used to promote inclusion through interaction and communication between the different cultures that coexist in the same smart city context.Promoting interaction in public spaces, between citizens with different cultural backgrounds, becomes a crucial element to support social cohesion and to facilitate coexistence between different cultures. Opportunities to mix people in daily life reinforce shared values and goals.One of the best approaches that can be adopted for the design of new urban spaces and services is co-design, which indicates collective creativity as it is applied throughout a design process and involves all stakeholders, encouraging and supporting them to take an active role in this process.Following the indications of Findeli [2], this design research was carried out with the tools of design, and above all with its most original and specific characteristic, the project, developing in this specific case a pilot product-service.The project, funded within the H2020 framework program, made it possible to experiment with design tools to foster the engagement of different cultures present in the urban environment and encourage them to interact with each other, also including other types of stakeholders, from public administration to small/medium enterprises and to third sector associations.All the areas of cultural heritage, tangible, and intangible, where every culture has many stories to tell, have emerged as the most suitable areas for experimenting with new ways of interacting and communicating through which diversity can be encountered and compared. Five design for storytelling strategies guided the project: i) building relevance; ii) design for experience; iii) interactivity; iv) immersion; v) inclusion.[1] De Kerckhove Derrick, Psicologie connettive, Milano, Egea, 2014.[2] Findeli Alain, “Design research-Introduction”, Design Issues n. 15(2), 1999.

Alessandra Rinaldi, Kiana Kianfar

Conference Proceedings

Sobreiro: participation and intervention of local communities in the historical and artistic construction of a stigmatized neighborhood

This paper intends to discuss a collaborative initiative, carried out within the scope of a doctoral scientific research in the field of Arts and Design and an institution that supports socio-economically vulnerable communities. The work took place in the Sobreiro Social Housing, located in the city of Maia, in Portugal, home to more than 600 families. By using methodologies specific to arts and cultural studies, three main outputs were created: a documentary film, a photo exhibition, and a series of community forums that happen throughout 2018. The purpose of this participatory study was to tell the story of the neighborhood with the help of its first residents and to stimulate the young residents (between 13 and 16 years old) reflection on the present and the future of the community. The whole process was conducted through proximity to the local population and the neighborhood Community Center. This article presents and discusses the ethnographic repertoire gathered within this research, which includes oral and visual memory thanks to the direct participation of the residents in the research process, which valued their own perspective, creativity and points of view.

Ana Clara Roberti, Helena Santos, Daniel Brandão

Conference Proceedings

Design of lnteractive Experience on Participatory Art Based on Art Brut Form

As a mainstream art form of public art, socially-engaged participatory art takes art as an intervention means to stimulate the public's thinking on relevant social issues. With the expansion of the influence of participatory art in society, relevant problems are gradually emerging. The form of public participation is still limited, the sense of participation is not strong enough, and the acceptance of content is not high enough. The problem behind it mainly comes from the disconnection between social participatory art and regional culture, and the poor interaction with local residents. To solve these problems, improving the way of interactive experience plays an important role in enhancing the public's artistic participation and conveying the core ideas of artistic works. The Art Brut has the characteristics that the creator completes the works with the impulse of personal inspiration and the release of emotions in the creator’s heart. It does not limit the form of artistic expression, and calls on participants without artistic training to express their feelings about things in a direct way. At the spiritual level, it pursues independence and freedom, so it is more easily accepted by the public. By analyzing the examples of Art Brut involved in participatory art, comparing relevant information, analyzing the interactive mode, public participation and implementation of social participatory art projects, this project aims to seek the coincidence points between Art Brut and social participatory art.

Ruihan Zhang

Conference Proceedings

Contents accessibility in archaeological museums and sites: a proposal for a neuropsychological approach

With specific reference to the issue of accessibility to cultural content and the inclusion of different audiences, the Authors point out an overview where museums usually tend to create educational activities and support assistive devices dedicated to specific audiences, rather than integrated solutions, that can “be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible", as stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).On the basis of previous studies on cultural accessibility and emotional appropriation, the Authors have recently carried out a survey focused in particular on archaeological museums audiences, considering their expectations, their reactions, and their prejudices. At the same time, they have conducted an extensive series of online interviews with Curators and Directors of many archaeological museums and sites in Europe and worldwide, including some in-depth site visits too. The investigations and surveys carried out have strengthened the awareness that museum spaces generate not only cognitive, but also physical and emotional reactions, and that the various publics react to cultural stimuli in very different ways. Therefore it is necessary, in designing museum communication, a disciplinary contamination involving in particular the field of neuropsychology. Such involvement would provide scientific support for the critical assessment of the effects that the environment and the cultural mediation trigger on the different publics.In particular, the Authors believe that the physical arrangement and the atmosphere are usually underestimated in the overall design of museums: on the contrary these two elements combined would allow each visitor to grasp the signals that best suit him or her, according to his/her senses and understanding. In other words, the atmosphere can play a key role in being an immersive communicative medium, in a truly inclusive way where everyone has the opportunity to "feel" and learn something.The Authors are developing a series of experiments that will be carried out first in the laboratory and then in some archaeological museums, in collaboration with a team of Neuropsychologists from the University of Turin and with the support of archaeological consultants and communication experts. By illustrating the current research and describing a series of examples (including best practices, problematic cases, ongoing projects), the paper aims at highlighting how the "design for all" in museums is a field in continuous development. Requiring an evolution in its approach, it also, and above all, represents a challenge in relation to the communication of particularly difficult cultural content, such as those related to the archaeological heritage.

Michela Benente, Valeria Minucciani, Gianluca D'Agostino

Conference Proceedings

Cultural and creative product design strategies suitable for the visually impaired from the perspective of inclusive design

Because visually impaired people cannot perceive the connotation of products through vision, it is necessary to explore product design strategies suitable for them. This article sorts out the characteristics of the visually impaired through the literature research and interview, and analyzes the problems existing in the interpretation of the products by visually impaired people. With inclusive design as the guiding ideology, meeting the needs of visually impaired people for cultural. A research idea is formed with cultural heritage as the core, five sense experience as the method, embodied cognition as the supplement, and equality and tolerance as the expectation. The conclusion of this paper is to realize the inclusiveness of cultural and creative products by establishing a multi-dimensional perception design model of products.

Wei Ding, Zijian Zhou

Conference Proceedings

An Information Design Tool to Reduce Cognitive Load in Older Adults with Chronic Degenerative Diseases During the Anamnesis Exploration Phase in a General Medical Consultation

During the general medical consultation protocol, there is a clinical exploration phase called anamnesis, which is carried out through an interrogation by the patient's treating physician, where information such as patient identification data, reason for consultation, family history is collected. , personal pathological history and psychosocial history, in order to obtain a retrospective of the patient and determine the relevant family, environmental and personal elements to generate an objective clinical history. However, breaking down the pathological history requires a great cognitive effort on the part of the patient, especially when it comes to older adults who suffer from one or more chronic diseases, which implies having extensive and permanent medical treatments, so it is imperative to generate an information design instrument that serves as a personal database where the patient can enter information about the medical treatment they carry out for their chronic diseases, with the aim of not losing any medication data related to their ailments and being able to transmit this information relevant to the physician during the anamnesis phase. Based on the above, this instrument was developed, taking into consideration the information needs of the doctor and the cognitive characteristics of the elderly, resulting in a type of control sheet to be filled out by the patient and easily delivered to the doctor. To evaluate the effectiveness of this piece of design, a perception test and a PSSUQ questionnaire were implemented for the elderly. This evaluation showed that using this tool reduces the stress of the patient during the consultation and solves the cognitive load that he had to do to transmit said information to his treating doctor.

Mariel Garcia-Hernandez, Fabiola Cortes Chavez, Alberto Rossa-Sierra, Marcela De Obaldia

Conference Proceedings

Cardi B meets Chuck Taylors : Immersing high school students into the design process through a shoe design workshop

In the fall of 2020 a university recruiter and an industrial design faculty member met to engage and inform high school students through an hour and a half long workshop. Specifically, we wanted to target underrepresented people groups from within our state and give them a glimpse of what working in a creative profession might look like. As we started to develop the workshop we learned that we needed to strike a balance between three main criteria. We needed to reference practicing professional designers and share their experiences. We needed to champion a collaborative and iterative design processes. And we needed to make the content accessible and entertaining. The method by which we join and convey these criteria is through a shoe design workshop. Why shoes one may ask? Because all students have experience with footwear and all students have an option about their choice of fashion.From the very conception of the workshop we have held conversations with professional shoe designers on how to run this workshop. While industrial design faculty are well versed in the design process they frequently lack the real world experience of designing a shoe from idea to manufacturing and marketing. To compensate for a lack of knowledge we reach out to prominent shoe designers at Q4 Sports, Adidas, Cole Hann, and Fear of God. These designers stress conducting rigorous research and beginning any visual development using the lateral view. In addition, they gifted the workshop with the drawings of their most popular shoes so each student could use the same underlying framework that the professionals use. The second challenge is to champion the collaborative and iterative process. Sadly, the abundant mechanism of high school testing discourages conversations with peers and multiple correct answers. To boost collaboration we encourage students to support each workshop with the most recent information via social media. We allow them to use their phones during class so long that they add culturally relevant information to the existing framework. To encourage iteration we take the before mentioned conversations and collectively turn them into multiple visual concepts. And not only that, we reinforce collaboration by empowering students to tell the professor what concepts work and which ones do not.All the prep work comes down to choosing a topic of investigation that is entertaining, thought provoking, and relevant all while being able to be quickly translated into 2 dimensional shoe based artwork. Get it right and we will successfully introduce the next generation of students to the design profession. Get it wrong and become another ineffective outreach program that tries too hard. Now in our fifth iteration of the workshop, we wish to share our methodology as how we engage high school students with modular content that empowers them to learn the design process through the intersection of shoe wear and celebrity.

Benjamin Bush, Katherine Chastain

Conference Proceedings

Design for Sustainable Behaviour to design an Adaptive Climbing Wall

In recent years, Europe has been moving towards a concept of inclusivity as highlighted by the sixteenth goal of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda that promotes peaceful and inclusive societies. (UN Dept. of Global Communications, 2015). The increasing awareness of social diversity has attracted the attention of designers who started to adopt an inclusive design approach and design products or services to be usable by as many people as reasonably possible, without the need for specialised adaptions. The inclusive design approach has been largely applied in adaptive sports to improve levels of functioning and independence in daily living activities and increase physical capability, physiological capacity, social status, and sense of belonging. Adaptive sports can become a way to promote involvement as an active part of the rehabilitation exercise to stimulate neuromotor recovery, particularly in children with disabilities (Canina et al., 2020). Recent research has demonstrated that climbing could be an excellent rehabilitation tool that involves the child with disabilities in a natural way. This sport exploits the propensity to play, to sport, to compete, to stimulate the execution of specific exercises, can transform this effort into a game and multiply the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process (Reljin, V., 2019). An intensive rehabilitation from an early age guarantees the recovery of part of their neuromotor abilities. In order to achieve better results in rehabilitation, adaptive sports must adopt a holistic approach to the user considering both the physical and the psycho-perceptual aspects, i.e. the ability to do it but also the feeling of fulfilment in doing it. However, current climbing walls do not include these aspects of the adaptive sport. An adaptive climbing wall design requires identifying a methodology that could lead to a coherent and effective solution, using explicit attention for inclusiveness. The paper describes the Design for Sustainable Behaviour (DfSB) approach adopted to design an adaptive climbing wall as a tool for the rehabilitation of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) by identifying the sustainable, inclusive requirements that consider children’s diversity. The DfSb approach, as user- and use-centred design that create preconditions for a sustainable everyday life, considers the sustainability aspects from two essential points of view. The user's sustainable behaviour, in which inclusiveness is a fundamental part of these attitudes, and the product's sustainability that uses new recycled materials create a more natural environment (similar to climbing in natural environments). Indeed, the project considers first the sustainable behavioural aspects, spreading climbing as a tool to improve the health conditions of CP children, introducing them to climbing by making it accessible and inclusive, intending to help children with different abilities to build trust and awareness of their potentialities, and a sense of accomplishment while training problem-solving and decision-making skills. As a second point of DfSB, the climbing wall and holds are designed with sustainable materials (waste material content) that provide the feeling of natural stone considering the entire product lifecycle. This paper shows how the DfSB approach can support the definition of design requirements of a training tool introducing children with CP to climbing as a natural approach to rehabilitation, making it accessible and inclusive. The project brings children with disabilities closer to the adapted sport through an indoor and democratic recreational activity. Bibliography 1. AA.VV. (2020). What is inclusive design? Inclusive Design Toolkit. University of Cambridge. Retrieved from http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/whatis/whatis.html 2. Canina M., Parise C., Bruno C. (2020). An Inclusive Design Approach for Designing an Adaptive Climbing Wall for Children with CP. 3. DesignCouncil. (2020). What is the framework for innovation? Retrieved from https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation-design-councils-evolved-double-diamond 4. Dixon-Fyle, S., Dolan, K., Hunt, V., Prince, S.: Diversity wins! How inclusion matters, pp. 1–12. McKinsey Co. (2020) 5. Persson, H., Åhman, H., Yngling, A. A., & Gulliksen, J. (2015). Universal design, inclusive design, accessible design, design for all: different concepts—one goal? On the concept of accessibility—historical, methodological and philosophical aspects. Universal Access in the Information Society, 14(4), 505–526. 6. Reljin, V. (2019). Effects of Adaptive Sports on Quality of Life in Individuals with Disability. Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects., 822. 7. United Nations Department of Global Communications. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Marita Canina, Daniela Amandolese, Carmen Bruno

Conference Proceedings

Interactive Die as an Educational Tool for Children with Special Educational Needs

The die as we know is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Although there’s variations, the most common form of die is a cube with dots marked on each side with the aim of generating random numbers in tabletop games. This notion can be extended to the pedagogic field making use of recent technologies in connected embedded systems. This article presents the design and proof of concept of an interactive die as an educational tool for children with SEN. The die consists of a RGB LED matrix for each of its six sides so it can display any kind of low-resolution symbols like numbers, letters, arrows or multicolor patterns presented in the form of animations, additionally includes an IMU to obtain the cube orientation and user tap detection when selecting the presented option on top side, audible and haptic feedback

David Moscoso - Montenegro, Luis Serpa-Andrade

Conference Proceedings

Design Process in the Development of Educational Tools for Children with Special Educational Needs

The educational tools have become important resources in the learning path of children with special educational needs. When designing such tools its important to follow some guidelines starting with defining what activity it will be used for, how it will be used, identifying the user or group of users, what they are using right now to accomplish that activity, how the actual tool adapts to their needs and finally the specific design requirements. This paper presents a methodological process for the development of devices focused in children with SEN and the addition of assistive technologies taking as an example the development of a sensorized pen in the GIIATA research group at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana.

David Moscoso - Montenegro, Luis Serpa-Andrade

Conference Proceedings

Intelligent interactive accompaniment platform to support the learning process for highly vulnerable children

Access to information and digital tools worldwide is a reality through the internet; Data in the cloud, connectivity applications, work networks, however, in the area of Education we find problems when implementing a strategy of dissemination, use and application of platforms in the vulnerable sector.We speak of the vulnerable sector as the group of families that do not have access to coverage or equipment that allows access to “Information and Communication Technologies”, the statement made by UNESCO shows through an international study that; approximately 1.5 billion students could not attend school due to the COVID19 pandemic, 706 million do not have access to computers, 56 million students live where there is no mobile network coverage, with which they proposed alternatives such as radio station programs and community televisions, in addition 63 million teachers do not have the means to reach students since the doors of schools were closed in 191 countries.It is necessary to accept the educational proposals that exist and translate them into the collective reality without affecting equality of opportunity, a precise case in our proposal taking as input the educational material by the Ministry of Education of Ecuador to implement an intelligent interactive support platform as a support in the learning process directed for highly vulnerable children of the preparatory sublevel, for which the guidelines have been revised and work will be carried out in the form of knowledge modules identified as: Module scope of logical-mathematical relationships, module scope of corporal expression and motor skills , module area understanding and expression of language, module area of artistic expression. These modules will be programmed with content that can be interrelated with interactive books that include a specific game so that the child interacts with the information and activities proposed, giving them instant positive feedback, an incentive to continue in the game and reach complete a unit of study, likewise intelligent interactive multimedia material will be programmed, leaving a set of tools so that the teacher can include other activities with the same virtues mentioned

Luis Serpa-Andrade, Roberto García-Vélez, Vladimir Robles-Bykbaev, Paul Mata-Quevedo, Cristhian Flores Urgiles, Adriana Leon-Pesantez, Lucia Cordero Cobos

Conference Proceedings

Information and Communication Technologies Learning Methodologies for Children with ADHD

ADHD is a disorder due to attention deficit, impulsiveness and hyperactivity due to various functional disputes, these anatomical brain inconsistencies can be genetic and/or environmental that hinders the child's lifestyle and their environment. Within the educational field, teachers cannot distinguish the attitude of a child with ADHD from one without disorders, especially in the preschool stage, which motivates the search for teaching alternatives, among them we have information and communication technologies - ICT, which allow evaluating, diagnosing, enriching and strengthening the learning of children with or without ADHD through educational software on a mobile phone, a computer and/or digital whiteboard; increasing attention, concentration, creativity, security, decreasing aggressiveness, gradually developing positive behaviors, their self-esteem improves, they feel motivated and progressively create solutions to their internal conflicts in such a way that their community learning guarantees the development of new social skills such as respect, solidarity, empathy and identifies the emotions of other people allowing a positive incorporation into their daily lives, especially in the school environment.

Roberto García-Vélez, Luis Serpa-Andrade, Graciela Serpa-Andrade

Conference Proceedings

Inclusion of people with ADHD in school, college, university and work

The inclusion of people with Attention Deficit Impulsivity and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), in school, college, university, and work has been developing since the nineteenth century because this disorder has similar symptoms to those of a hungry infant, an anxious or antisocial child, a young impetuous or otherwise without social contact, immature adults, lacking an order or commitment; but in the past it was derived from the responsibility of the elders, from the values instilled and from the culture, from the society itself, where they grew up. The inclusion of people with this disorder is due to a multidisciplinary intervention, family interaction, academic-labor-social, therapies, variety of neurobiological specialists, implementation of Educational Integration Projects (PIE) where the entity and its different human and physical resources must adapt to the students to achieve inclusion; the methodologies and processes of inclusion vary according to the field, that is, in the labor part with respect to the entities of initial, middle, and higher education.

Roberto García-Vélez, Luis Serpa-Andrade, Graciela Serpa-Andrade

Conference Proceedings

Innovative intelligent technology and information systems for visually impaired

The paper presents a develop innovative intelligent technology and information systems for visually impaired students. To solve this problem a comprehensive approach has been proposed, which consists in the aggregate of the application of artificial intelligence methods and statistical analysis. Creating an accessible learning environment, identifying the intellectual, physiological, psychophysiological characteristics of perception and information awareness by this category of students is based on a cognitive approach. Based on IT network program developed specifically for visually impaired students. The individually oriented learning path of PIV is constructed with the aim of obtaining high-quality engineering education with modern equipment in joint use laboratories. Additional teaching aids, like iNetSim, a universally accessible network simulator, created to allow vision-impaired and sighted students to complete Cisco Certified Network, and Microsoft HoloLens 2 (a new vision for computing, is used to transform abstract concepts into 3D experiences in the virtual classroom), which enables students to research and explore more deeply, see more clearly and learn by doing. This article aims to allow visually impaired students, as well as sighted students, to perform with similar results.

Theresa Lobo

Conference Proceedings