Alessia Brischetto

Assistive robotics provides a powerful solution for improving the quality of life of the elderly and frail people and will play a key role in the coming years as part of strategies for Ageing in place and Active and Healthy Ageing. If robots are going to be used by a large number of users, it is essential that they are accepted by as many people as possible. However, many of the assistive robots are designed with little consideration of the social, aesthetic, and emotional relationships that the elderly will experience when interacting with the product (Forlizzi et al., 2004). The acceptability of technology is a big issue, especially for elderly and frail people: the factors that influence it, and that also determine a positive User Experience, are many, as shown by the countless existing evaluation methods. Moreover, the acceptability of technology, in particular for elderly and frail users, is currently a delicate issue, whose evaluation criteria offer many challenges to design research. In fact, the interaction that users establish with assistive robots and all related technologies defines the very experience of aging. In this context, the Human-Centred Design and Ergonomics in Design approaches and methodologies can contribute to improve human-robot-digital technology interaction through the design of assistive robots according to people’s real needs and expectations.This paper presents the results of a survey conducted with primary and secondary users of assistive robots, with a focus on factors influencing robotic acceptability.The survey aims to collect quantitative and qualitative data about the relationship between people and robots, with a focus on beliefs, attitudes, preferences and use of such devices by users of different age and technological experience level. The survey aims to investigate users' attitudes, behaviors, beliefs and goals in relation to robots.The survey, conducted as an online questionnaire, is targeted at current and potential users of social and assistive robots. The questionnaire is addressed to a sample of users of both genders, aged between 18 and 99 years. The total sample surveyed is 272 people in Italy and 15 people in Europe. The survey includes a preliminary demographic analysis of users (age, robotic experience level, etc.) and then it investigates the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors towards assistive robots, and also the aesthetic and functional factors that may influence its acceptability.This research applies the scientific methods of Human-Centred Design and Ergonomics in Design (Stanton, 2014; Giacomin, 2014; Maguire, 2001) for qualitative investigation of older adults' preferences for assistive robots.The results provide an insight into how the acceptability factors of assistive robot tested in the literature actually relate to the preferences and attitudes of potential and current users. In addition, the results highlight the need for stronger involvement of stakeholders during the design phases of robots in order to promote a deeper understanding of those people’s needs and insights that cannot be collected by quantitative surveys. This study provides a groundwork for future researches in the Human-Robot Interaction and Human-Centred Design areas.

Nowadays society, increasingly oriented towards actions to enhance its urban contexts, tries to promote better lifestyles and increasingly inclusive social practices. The work proposed in this article presents the results of the research project: "Guidelines for the review of the park project aimed at social inclusion, sustainability and usability of the cultural and sporting activities of the Carpugnane area", funded by the Municipality of Calenzano and conducted by the Ergonomics & Design Laboratory of the University of Florence. The research used the methodological tools of Ergonomics for Design, Human-Centered Design and Inclusive Design and the collected data allowed the design of a people-centred park, suitable for citizens of all ages, which is sustainable and inclusive. The approach, adopted in this work, has provided an effective strategy in allowing the assessment and design of urban environments, ensuring safety, psycho-physical well-being and healthy lifestyles for all, taking into account human diversity and social inclusion factors.

Nowadays, the design focuses not just on the functional attributes of products but especially on emotional ones, and it investigates users' behavior from an emotional point of view.Industrial companies also discovered the economic advantages of holistically analyzing user experience and aim, beyond usability research, to improve people-product interaction. Therefore, their goal is to understand how to evaluate the emotions arising from the interaction with a product and integrate emotions into usability studies. Consequently, it is fundamental to look at Affective Evaluation Methods to enhance usability methods and make them more effective on affective responses. However, scientific literature highlights that although the understanding of emotions has progressed, measurement tools have lagged. Moreover, people generally find it difficult to report the emotions they experience. Furthermore, regarding children, evaluating the emotional impact of a product is even more complex. Therefore, applying methods and tools found in the literature (affective evaluation methods - AEM) may not be appropriate to investigate the affective response in children, according to specific variables.This research addresses the issue of children's affectivity in evaluating positive user experiences as a requirement to be considered within the design process. In addition, this research investigates theories on emotions and studies of the affective sciences and explores the contribution of design and cognitive psychology in these areas.This paper investigates strategies and evaluation tools of the Human-Centred Design (HCD), User Experience (UX), Affective Evaluation Methods (AEM) of Psychology, Affective Sciences and Cognitive Ergonomics, that allow the measurement of emotions. This study aims to:1.understanding the emotional skills of children; 2.verifying the reliability of the emotional responses expressed through the existing self-assessment tools;3.investigating effective methods to evaluate the affective response of 6-11 years children.This research describes the results of two qualitative methods for investigating emotions: (1) the survey aimed to collect data on emotions experienced by children; (2) the workshop focused on emotions conducted with children of age 6-11. The workshop included activities to analyze children’s emotional skills and their ability to recognize emotions in themselves, others, and interaction with products. Furthermore, field surveys with children and experts (direct observation, interviews, focus groups, brainstorming sessions) allowed us to evaluate the reliability of the emotional responses collected by the main tools described in the literature, e.g. tools for rational-emotional education (REBT) and Affective Evaluation Methods (AEM).The collected data revealed critical issues of current evaluation tools and identified the requirements for a new tool for children’s emotional evaluation. Specifically, it emerged that the cognitive-behavioral approaches, typical of psychology, can be powerful tools for designers to interpret and analyze the emotional responses that occurred during the interaction with a system. Together with the HCD and UX tools, these approaches can help designers improve the overall quality of the project.Furthermore, results show a lack of a theoretical framework to move from a conceptual to an empirical level to develop effective tools to measure emotions. Consequently, it is essential to introduce tools for measuring the objective and subjective aspects of the experience, as it is challenging to involve such young users in the research phases.The results of this study allowed the development and prototyping of a series of design concepts to evaluate the emotional impact and collect physiological measurements. This paper only shows the main objectives and features of the tool "Cubotto emotion kit". It is an interactive tool that provides information and allows qualitative data collection so far beyond even the measurement of emotions themselves. It could help designers understand children's preferences, such as colors and shapes that can arouse positive emotions and useful information to redesign products, services, and systems.

BACKGROUND: one of the current challenges is improving the design of cultural heritage experiences, through the development of innovative services that foster inclusion, social innovation and intercultural dialogue. OBJECTIVE: the key mission of the cultural heritage sector today is to provide inclusive access to all groups of users, considering aspects connected to multiculture. Regard museums, for offering a satisfying experience to visitors, they have to transmit further meanings than the explanation of the exhibited artworks. The exhibition and the dissemination of cultural heritage are enjoying considerable benefits thanks to ICT. Museums are attracting the interest of researchers in the field of Interaction Design, for improving the so-called design of cultural experience and strategies to promote intercultural exchange and knowledge. METHODS: the research used the methods of design for inclusion to investigate needs of users and to explore innovative scenarios and concepts of inclusive products-services, aimed at innovating cultural heritage experience of visitors from different cultures and ages with the context of Opera del Duomo Museum in Florence. RESULTS: this paper presents an overview of the state of art in the Interaction Design context for museum experiential visits and the results of the design research conducted by University of Florence.

Active, meaningful, independent play is crucial for the development of health, emotional and social well-being of all children, at any age andwith different abilities. Nowadays, in the field of outdoor play equipment there is a growing attention to the needs of an increasingly wide range of users with various abilities. However, the current solutions do not meet fully inclusive requirements due to physical and social barriers limiting access, participation and play experience. Thus, interaction and socialization for childrenwith disability remain goals still far from being achieved. This article presents a line of outdoor sensory play equipment to investigate how sensorial and emotional aspects of the play, which present a fertile ground for inclusion, can be translated in design solutions by adopting Human-Centred Design approaches, such as, field observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups together with a deep analysis concerning market worldwide.

Human-Centred Design (HCD) investigation and assessment methods record the user’s needs and satisfaction level and are widely used to evaluate usability and orientate design decision making. Questionnaires are among the most useful and popular observation tools to study users’ opinions using quantifiable and comparable data. Their drafting needs requirements and evaluations in order to use them efficiently. Therefore, this paper intends to provide designers and researchers with useful tips for designing these tools. For this reason, it describes features of method and systematizes instructions from the literature. It also shows application cases to exemplify the relationship between method and type of data collected and to explore impacts of using different types of questionnaires in design processes.

In the wake of recent developments in the field of New Media Studies, Game Studies and Narratology, this essay aims to highlight some of principles useful to recognizing an educational simulation game when it is wellmade. Starting from the assumption that a game is a system based on rules and mechanics, and that their typology makes it more or less effective, more or less engaging and intense, more or less formative, the essay wants to analyze the principles related to content (narration) that are best suited to provide an appropriate simulation learning experience. For these reasons, the research analyzes of a selection of current educational Serious Games and compare their contents with the Procedural Rhetoric Theory (PRT) proposed by the game designer Bogost (2007). This theory identifies in the video game a system of rules and mechanics that is based on the rhetoric linguistic techniques of translated into a computational procedure. According to the PRT, games can exercise a good persuasion provided that the gameplay features a meaningful representation of this underlying procedure. To support these principles conceptually, the essay analyze also the pedagogical side of the contents and present some of the “36 Learning Principles” proposed by Gee (2007) will be used. This model proposes specific characteristics of each learning dimension and contributes to defines the principles of a wellmade learning experience. Considering the Serious Games analyzed through the lens of the PRT and the 36LP, the article aims to identify a series of rhetorical procedural principles relevant to the design of the educational content of a serious game.

In the modern society, the knowledge, its acquisition process and fruition are related to new forms of complexity, strictly connected to digital innovation, to the frequent use of network devices for sharing information and most in general, to the massive widespread of technology in everyday activities. In the context of learning environments, digital technologies can reveal an effective tool to improve individual residual skills of weakest people (elderly, disables and children) as well to overcome impairments, defects, or temporary learning limitations. However, people are not always able to accomplish their tasks or predetermined activities, because tools or devices employed to acquire information are often poorly designed and they do not consider the specific needs of people. To address the shortcomings imposed by the fast growing of technological devices, new design solutions are increasingly required as well as a continuous redefinition of the goals to achieve in the projects together with the daily updating of methods and involved stakeholders. Starting with the knowledge related to Ergonomics in Design and design for inclusion, this book aims to provide an opened and integrated point of view to the disciplines of cognitive psychology, pedagogy and human-computer interaction. It configures as a flexible tool for understanding key aspects concerning the use of technologies and their effects, with special regards to the experiential dimension on a human scale, particularly tailored to weaker people. The book is supported by interviews to experts being focused on the sharing of expertise, experiences and design methodologies. It is also displayed a collection of operating case studies aimed at testing the effectiveness the proposed design approach and at developing novel designing scenarios to achieve inclusion and valorize human diversity.

The book presents contributions submitted at the Conference "Designing for Inclusive Learning Experience", which was held in Florence on May 10, 2019, at the Department of Architecture DIDA of the University of Florence. The conference main topics regard the application of Ergonomics and Human Factors to Education, Gamification and Inclusion. The conference is a Multiplier Event of the european project "PUDCAD, Practicing Universal Design Principles in Design Education through a CAD-Based Game", founded by Erasmus+ Program KA203 and conducted by the Center for European Union Education and Youth Programs.

Playful activity, despite its importance for humans of all ages, genders and cultural backgrounds, is an aspect of life that is still little explored. In this regard, since the end of the last century, the scientific community has witnessed to the formation of a new discipline, called Game Studies. To date, the latter brings together several disciplines, like cognitive sciences, mathematics, pedagogy, computer science and design. The essay investigates these aspects and tries to illustrate the points of contact between the disciplines of Game Studies and inclusive design.