Alessia Brischetto

The research project "DeinSite" – The Design System in the Southern Italy Territories investigates the strategic relationship between design and craftsmanship as a lever for local development in Southern Italy. An initial mapping phase conducted in the Campania region identified corporate museums, production districts, and artisanal SMEs, highlighting the interplay between heritage, innovation, and material culture. The article presents the methodology, selection criteria, and key findings of this mapping, offering a critical reflection on its limits and potential. Challenges included fragmented data collection, the heterogeneity of case studies, and the need to ensure the long-term sustainability of the digital platform created. Future developments include extending the mapping to other southern regions, activating workshops and exhibitions, and strengthening the platform as a shared infrastructure for connection and co-design. The contribution outlines a model for the integrated valorisation of local know-how, positioning design as a cultural mediator and catalyst for new territorial networks.

Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) promote innovation and competitiveness in various sectors. However, despite technological advances, many communities remain excluded from benefits due to economic, physical and social barriers. This exclusion is particularly evident among elderly, disabled and economically disadvantaged populations. Therefore, there is an urgent need for inclusive solutions that leverage KETs to fill these gaps. This paper explores how KETs can be integrated into service design to foster inclusive living communities. A series of exemplary case studies are presented, which illustrate the successful implementation of KETs in inclusive living environments. Finally, the advantages, drawbacks and consequences of these implementations are analysed with the aim of suggesting KETs-oriented service-based solutions designed to assist in the establishment of inclusive living communities, with the objective of fostering social inclusion and sustainable development.

In the paper, the authors describe the evaluation and design phases that led to the definition of a novel GUI (Graphic User Interface) designed for a medical device in biology laboratories, i.e. an analytical device for diagnostic investigations that use the serum agglutination technique on a microplate. In particular, some methods of the Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach were used, which made it possible to evaluate the existing state of the interface to be redesigned (phase 1), define the design requirements of the new GUI (phase 2), and finally evaluate the usability levels of the new interface thanks to a usability test session which involved 17 participants with specific training in the biological field (phase 3). The results highlighted the methodology’s effectiveness and possible replicability for other products and graphic interfaces to be used in the medical field and beyond. Furthermore, thanks to the methodological approach adopted, it was possible to identify the main criticalities of the end users, the areas of intervention, and the relevant present and future design solutions. Fundamentally, the project of medical devices implies the knowledge of human factors, which focus on the interaction between human beings and the system, as an element to minimize the risks of use and ensure a safer and usable medical device.

The research approach and the design of the proposed solutions are based on Human-Centred Design and Inclusive Design principles and the involvement of different user profiles, in particular associations of people with visual, hearing and motor disabilities, with whom design solutions have been developed that integrate the possibility of multisensory involvement of visitors and the development of a customisable visitor experience aimed at as wide an audience as possible.

The proposed solutions integrate multisensory stations, which offer the possibility of tactile reading of the works, verbal descriptions, and olfactory stimuli, with video guides created using a mobile application that can be customised according to different needs. The design solutions are accompanied by the creation of a platform for the dissemination and sharing of the project, divided into informative, documentary, instrumental and community sections.  The XALL project, funded by the TIM Foundation and carried out by the Ergonomics and Design Laboratory of the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence, with the participation of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano, was developed with the Bargello Museum, the Palazzo Vecchio Museum and the Bardini Museum in Florence.  The associations ENS Ente Nazionale Sordi (National Deaf Association), UIC Unione Italiana Ciechi e Ipovedenti (Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired), HABILIA ONLUS Associazione di Paratetraplegici e altri disabili motori (Association of Paraplegics and other Motor Disabled People) participated in the project.

In the European scenario of greener, digital, and inclusive transitions, the concept of Inclusive Living Communities (ILCs) is apparent and foster socially inclusive interventions within small- and large-scale communities. Living in a community that is fully inclusive is recognized as a driver for prosperity and quality. Thus, ILCs promote health, wellbeing, and changes toward sustainable visions that are relevant for Design studies, due to the use inclusive stances to trigger social innovations. Although ILCs mainly raise discussions within Urban Planning studies, endogenous dynamics used to address human-centered investigations have not yet been examined through Inclusive Design’s lenses; these could stimulate new design explorations by suggesting innovative research avenues hinged around inclusiveness, wellbeing, and users’ engagement. This paper explores the concept of ILC and provides and overview of research trends and design scenarios at different scales. Research trends are discussed to offer themed explorations on different domains that are considered as relevant.

The rise of awareness and attention around the concept of EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) within the scientific and professional communities working in design studies is apparent. However, ensuring high-quality education for all—Sustainable Development Goal 4—while educating future generations of designers in acting responsibly by preventing biased actions requires the higher education (HE) sector to appropriately interpret this multi-concept. A systematization of available knowledge is required to clearly depict main trends and developments made in the field in the last years. A systematic literature review of a sample of 56 works, selected from an original sample of 191 studies, both empirical and theoretical, performed in the field of design education allowed to identify trends, research themes, and disciplinary evolutions of the EDI concept into teaching and learning (T&L) environments. The extracted data show clear interweaves between EDI and design education through three research themes: (i) educational contexts, (ii) design disciplines, and (iii) emerging topics. Future research trajectories for advancing the field of design education are proposed from qualitative interpretation of findings. Synergies among interdisciplinary aspects provide rooms for critical reflection about the opportunities to progress the knowledge in the field within unexplored cultural domains.

Made-in-Italy companies, capable of producing products of the highest quality and of imposing themselves on markets at the international level, have always strived to transfer into design innovation a non-reproducible cultural and productive heritage. A distinctive feature of a production system based on “know-how” is the strong connection between different companies within the same territory and the presence of excellent workmanship and established production traditions, impossible to recon- stitute in contexts other than the original one. Like many Italian regions, Tuscany is characterized by craft excellencies that have contributed significantly to the cultural and economic growth of the region. Many of these, however, fail, due to economic size and cultural background, to keep up to date with the ever-changing demands of a market that wants new products, access to new technologies and attention to sustainability and the life cycle of each product. On this basis, we outline the key role of design as a tool and driver for innova- tion, capable of guiding the company’s strategic choices, including in relation to the sustainability of products and processes. This paper presents the research project “Art, Design and Enterprise for New Young Talents” aimed at proposing and developing new training and production patterns and processes through the placement of young talents, designers and artists, within companies in the Tuscan territory. In fact, putting young creatives in contact with companies can help companies in the path of research and innovation and allows young artists to translate the theoretical framework acquired into a finalized design.

This paper describes how the integration of cognitive and organizational information design skills can support the design of inclusive maps. The contribution reports the results of “Quartieri Sani HUB”, a research project, which has among its outputs the definition of two health maps, referring to two neighborhoods used as case study. For the map design a critical review of the literature on the tools of the mentioned disciplines, analysis of best practices and verification on the design level was conducted.“Quartieri Sani HUB” addresses the topic of healthy cities, declining it at neighborhood scale, and the relationship between the built environment and health to promote healthy lifestyles and develop inclusive contexts. The overall objective of the project concerns the definition of design scenarios and strategic factors aimed at improving the physical environmental conditions of public space through the "research-action" methodological approach on two representative case studies of the metropolitan city of Florence as the ground for research and experimentation. In the analysis phase, within the two reference case studies, the potential and opportunities offered by the built environment in producing health were focused on. The emerged results supported the development of an information tool, indicating how to enjoy the neighborhood and related healthy services. Through a systemic and transcalar vision, therefore, the research team identified the "health map" as a communicative artifact capable of producing a knowledge and awareness-raising impact on the urban areas and their citizens, with regards to the project issues. For the development of the health maps design, as a tool aimed at citizens for orientation and choice of usable healthy routes, places and activities within the reference case study, the goal was to optimize the understanding, usability and readability of the data. Thus, the research activity was aimed at making the data on the map clear, readable, accessible and usable by a broad target audience. Thus, the following research questions emerged: i) what are the design components of maps, which lead to effective improvement in information comprehension and reduce user response time during interaction; ii) what are the corresponding design principles applicable to map design; iii) what are the main tools for information selection and encoding in the development of design outputs, iv) how does the use of color impact inclusive readability. The research team has investigated the relationships between information design and map design, produced the prerequisites for the theoretical and design testing of the map, created the conditions for the testing phase with expert users through an interdisciplinary workshop, and is creating the conditions for the usability testing phase with citizens in the field. The article, therefore, describes the activities and the role that design has played on the topic in an interdisciplinary research context, through the following development phases: i) critical literature review, ii) evaluation of best practices, iii) preliminary development of health maps; iv) iteration of the prototyping phase. What emerges is the ability of the design discipline to enrich the user experience, reporting a collaborative research experience between different disciplines of representation and communication and colour design, and the preliminary outputs of the health maps design.

Global population aging is one of the most critical factors in the coming decades (Eurostat, 2019). In Italy, the average age of residents, which was 32 in 1952, increased to 46.2 years at the beginning of 2022 (Istat, 2022). The overall effects of aging on the health and welfare system are considerable. Indeed, with ageing is associated with an increase in chronic pathological conditions, co-morbidities, or the inability to perform basic daily activities independently, and this leads to an increase in the care and assistance needs of the elderly. A distinctive factor of the new generation of elders is their approach to technologies, a factor that can greatly expand the pos- sibilities of access to care and assistance, communication and information services (Istat, 2019). To provide, as far as possible, the continuity of care and assistance people need, telemedicine services can ensure safe and efficient care pathways while main- taining a strong patient-physician relationship. This article presents the first results of the research conducted by the Laboratory of Ergonomics and Design (LED) of the Uni- versity of Florence as part of Spoke 3 of the project “THE - Tuscany Health Ecosystem” of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), funded by the Italian government with Next Generation EU funds - Mission 4 (Education and Research) - Component 2 “From Research to Enterprise”. The project involves the participation of 22 partners including universities, research centers and companies in the Tuscany Region, orga- nized in 10 Spokes. The goal is to develop guidelines for the design of interfaces and products for telemedicine services in digital diagnosis and therapy for neurode- generative diseases. This article will discuss the research questions, applied research methodology, results and future developments.

In the context of the growing emphasis on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within higher education, this study explores the current landscape of digital and traditional teaching methodologies in Design and Design-related programmes. Developed within the EDIDesK Erasmus+ project, the research presents a structured benchmarking of tools, toolkits, and pedagogical approaches with EDI potential or application. Drawing from a non-systematic literature review and a structured comparative analysis, three comprehensive databases were created to map existing resources: (1) Toolkits and methodologies, (2) Teaching methodologies and guidelines, and (3) Digital environments and tools. The results reveal a fragmented yet promising scenario where inclusive practices are often embedded within broader human-centred or universal design approaches. This article discusses the implications of such findings for the development of inclusive design education and outlines pathways for future integration and innovation.