DESIGNING AND PROTOTYPING INTELLIGENT PRODUCTS FOR USERS WITH DISABILITIES, A TEACHING EXPERIENCE

The present paper introduces the teaching approach applied to the Product Design Laboratory in the Master in Design at Iuav University of Venice in the winter semester of the academic year 2017-2018. The course, organized in a time span of 14 weeks, was meant to be an occasion for the students to learn with an hands-on approach through three group projects. During the course, the composition of the group has changed to enhance the collaboration through the class and to give to each student the possibility to experience every role and improve their practical skills and knowledge.

The paper focuses on the development and the results of the final project, in which the students were asked to design a product for a real user affected by a disability: each group has identified a person with a disability and then worked together to identify a need and create a functional prototype of a product that can help the user with a specific task.

In this paper will be presented a comparison in between the process used and achieved results of the following projects:
- Olga, a trans-radial prosthetic element for a young woman without the right forearm;
- Walk-and-call, an interactive walking stick to help an user affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD) to get over freezing;
- LightNote, a technological device to help Andrea, a young man with an high functioning autism, to become more autonomous and to enter a future workplace with a support to communicate his emotions and feelings to his colleagues;
- ingrado, a digital protractor with vocal assistance for a blind physiotherapist;
- Georgie, a weight scale for food with an incorporated scanner to help Giorgio, a blind person who loves to cook.

The projects have been developed through the application of desktop research, user centered design principles, mock-ups and each final prototype works thanks to an Arduino based system. The results of the research have been introduced to the final users and then exhibited at the end of the semester.