Francesca Tosi

This volume collects the results of the research programme Home Care Design for Parkinson’s Disease, aimed at defining good design practices to enhance the autonomy and quality of life of people with Parkinson’s disease within the home environment.
The programme, promoted and financed by the Fondazione Zoé, was realised by a multidisciplinary work group – which involved the University of Florence for the area of design, the University of Turin for the area of neurology, the Catholic University of Milan for the area of sociology, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) for the area of industrial production engineering – in collaboration with the Confederazione Parkinson Italia and the Accademia Limpe-Dismov.
The book proposes an introductory overview of Parkinson’s disease from a medical and sociological point of view, analysing the main and most frequent areas of discomfort and/or difficulty experienced by people with Parkinson’s disease during activities of daily living and relationships.
The project approach is based on the principles of Design for Inclusion and on the theoretical and methodological approach of Human-Centred Design which, through the direct involvement of users, have made it possible to focus attention on the specific needs and expectations of people with Parkinson’s disease and their families and to define the different design solutions.
Specific insights are devoted to the emotional effects of interaction with the environments and products of everyday life, and to the opportunities offered by the use of enabling technologies, which, from robotics to wearable devices to environmental monitoring technologies, can offer concrete solutions for enhancing independence.
The second part of the book is dedicated to the design guidelines that provide solutions and operational indications to ensure maximum usability, safety and pleasantness of use of the home’s interior, its furnishings and equipment.

Theaimofthestudywastheexperimentationwithahybridapproach for the evaluation of some workstations of 5 Tuscany manufacturing companies, with the aim of defining standard operating guidelines for the improvement of safety and usability of the industrial machinery and workstations, and to improve the working conditions of the operators of all ages. 3 mechanical companies and 2 fashion-leather companies took part in this study. 37 users with variable age, gender and experience were involved. The study, financed by INAIL Toscana, bases its scientific reliability on the integration of skill and methodologies of two different fields of ergonomics, such as occupational ergonomics (curated by INAIL) and Human-Centred Design (curated by LED). The heuristic approach involved the application of a series of methodologies and the direct participation of operators to assess, identify and explore possible problems and discrepancies from the point of view of human-workstation interaction and workers’ perceptions. The following methodologies have been used: User Observation, Thinking Aloud, Interview, Questionnaire, Workstation Observation and Work Environment Observation. The data emerged were compared and evaluated also in consideration of the results of the evaluation carried out by INAIL experts within the framework of Occupational Ergonomics. The use of this hybrid approach allowed the researchers to collect qualitative and quantitative data, such as opinions, thoughts, expectations and critical points experienced by operators, sometimes silent and hidden due to the low participation of the operators in the company decisions. This article shows the methodology used and the findings.

According to a study conducted by ARS Toscana in 2014 the old people in Tuscany were 916.640 and there will be an increase of 36% in 2050. The “non-self-sufficiency” of elderly is a condition which entails their need of assistance. Often such a condition leads them to move from their home to the nursing home, radically changing their habits and everyday life. Over the past few years, robotics has represented a potential solution to improve the quality of life. This paper describes the methodology used for CloudIA research project, which concerns the development of an assistive robot to support fragile and non-self-sufficient people. An ad hoc questionnaire was developed to evaluate the acceptability. The questionnaire was addressed to 75 people, aged between 30 and 99 years, living in five nursing homes. The results allowed to target the design of the new robot.

n recent years, wearable and robotic technologies are making significant advances in a variety of fields, including medicine and social and health care. The development of research in robotics marks the end of its segregation to mere industrial fields: society is increasingly open to the everyday use of safe and reliable technologies for cooperation and human assistance [1]. On this basis, the key role of designers in the development of human-centered assistive technologies is evident: technologies should be designed according to fundamental human rights and to the needs and expectations of people, supporting their independence and improving their quality of life. The scientific and methodological approaches of Human-Centred Design and Ergonomics for Design can provide a fundamental contribution in the development of technologies that embody universal ethical and socio- cultural values. This paper explores the areas of intervention and the role of design for assistive technologies, with a focus on the national state of the art. This paper also investigates the contribution of design both from a practical point of view (i.e. operational strategies and methodological approaches), and from a research perspective: it underlines the role of the designers as responsible for the dissemination of technologies aimed to support and not to replace the human work.

Made in Italy, characterised by a combination of craftsmanship, entrepreneurial skill and continuous innovation, is at the heart of many companies operating in the field of Italian manufacturing excellence. One of the challenges for Made in Italy companies, which have always been able to produce high-quality products and establish themselves on international markets, is the ability to translate their unique cultural and manufacturing heritage into design innovation. This phenomenon is even more evident in the context of reshoring, i.e. the relocation of production activities back to their country of origin by many companies, with the aim of ensuring superior product quality, better traceability and absolute competitiveness in terms of human resources and the enhancement of Italian know-how.

In this scenario, design plays a decisive role in reorienting corporate production strategies and enhancing their commitment to quality. In fact, design today represents a fundamental tool for relaunching and innovating those characteristics of quality and competitive capacity that a traditional approach is no longer able to guarantee. On this basis, the key role of the designer emerges as a professional who works both to define new products and innovate their design and development processes, and to synthesise and connect the many skills involved in these processes. This presentation aims to promote the heritage of Italian design, with particular regard to its relationship with craftsmanship, and to highlight the excellence of Italian design-oriented companies through the analysis of illustrative case studies.

Obiettivo generale è, quindi, esplorare la lunga tradizione del rapporto tra arte, artigianato e industria in Italia, anche in relazione alle più recenti esperienze di sperimentazione condotte nel nostro paese. Infatti, alle aziende italiane più note che hanno fondato da sempre il loro successo sull’eccellenza del lavoro artigiano (da Ferragamo a Ginori, da Gucci a Cassina, Alessi, Arteluce ecc.) si affiancano oggi aziende fortemente innovative, orientate alla sperimentazione di nuovi materiali, tecniche di lavorazione e innovazione tecnologica, sia dei processi produttivi che delle forme di comunicazione. ___ Made in Italy, which is marked by the synthesis of craftsmanship, entrepreneurial ability and continuous innovation, is the original core of many companies operating within the productive systems of Italian excellence. 

One of the challenges for Made in Italy companies, which have always been able to create products of the highest quality and establish themselves on international markets, is the attempt to translate a non-reproducible cultural and productive heritage into design innovation. This fact is even more evident in the light of Re-shoring (Di Stefano & Fratocchi, 2019; Barbieri et al., 2020), i.e. the re-location of production activities back to the domestic country by many companies, with the aim of achieving higher product quality, better traceability and absolute competitiveness from the point of view of human resources and enhancement of Italian know-how. 

The overall objective is therefore to explore the long tradition of the relationship between art, craftsmanship and industry in Italy, also in relation to the most recent experimental experiences conducted in our country. In fact, alongside the best-known Italian companies that have always based their success on the excellence of craftsmanship (from Ferragamo to Ginori, from Gucci to Cassina, Alessi, Arteluce, etc.), there are now highly innovative companies focused on experimenting with new materials, processing techniques and technological innovation, both in production processes and forms of communication. ___ Made in Italy, which is marked by the synthesis of craftsmanship, entrepreneurial ability and continuous innovation, is the original core of many companies operating within the productive systems of Italian excellence. One of the challenges for Made in Italy companies, which have always been able to create products of the highest quality and establish themselves on international markets, is the attempt to translate a non-reproducible cultural and productive heritage into design innovation. This fact is even more evident in the light of Re-shoring (Di Stefano & Fratocchi, 2019; Barbieri et al., 2020), i.e. the re-location of production activities back to the domestic country by many companies, with the aim of achieving higher product quality, better traceability and absolute competitiveness from the point of view of human resources and enhancement of Italian know-how.