Scaffolding in Indoor and Outdoor Mobility a Wearable and Mobile Application for Senior Tourism in a Playable City

The growth of urban population and the challenges of an ageing society have brought to the fore the need of innovative ways to re-invent sustainable healthy ageing lifestyles and meet the growing demand on transport and residents’ assistance with ageing-in-place. Fatalities involving older adult pedestrians is a major problem in EU urban areas, given the general lack of information about traffic and road conditions. Indoor and Outdoor Mobility are also likely to affect Senior Tourism and older adults’ travel patterns. This paper proposes a digital application designed for wearables and mobile devices that engages the users in a set of missions and routes that are customized to their context and mobility condition, based on a multi-peer review system.This work was supported by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and ESF under Community Support Framework III – the project SEDUCE 2.0 nr. POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 031696.publishe

Musical Viruses for graceful seduction

The +++ Wearable Player is a result of the application of the Rights through Making approach in designing wearables. This approach aims at designing systems, whose use empowers people towards the materialization of values (e.g. human rights). The +++ Wearable Player system elaborates on the previous project Sound Experience, and introduces the concept of viral music exchange as a motivating factor in the context of social health. This paper describes the morphological genesis, the functional aspects and how they have been implemented in a fully working experienceable prototype. The design process and its outcomes are illustrated, in the framework of the “changing behaviour” design trend

Sustainability principles through educational e-textile kit

Innovations in smart textiles technology are on the rise with a promise to add value to the consumer's life (Goodman et al., 2018). However, these innovations and the high development speed involved also raise concerns about environmental issues related to these trends (Van der Velden et al., 2015). Therefore, TTorch project was created which aim is to bring different fields, like electronics and textile engineering, together to create a kit for educational purposes and follow circular economy principles while doing it. TTorch is a creative toy with a development kit for up to 10-year-old children, using e-textile principles. The product kit creates a bridge between engineering and design, by letting the user explore a personal light source and build surroundings to it. The goal of the project is to show how interdisciplinary fields can work together and with that creating different opportunities. This paper gives a short overview of e-textiles, research on e-waste, textile waste and e-textile waste management. Further on it will focus on the necessary collaboration between design, engineering and industry by emphasising difference between core team and network around the core team. The collaboration aim it to create ecological product kit for educational purposes following the concept of STEAM. Discussions will include how collaboration between team members with diverse backgrounds, and surrounding network was necessary to identify specific gap in the market and to evolve the idea from product to development kit

Designing experiences with wearables: A case study exploring the blurring boundaries of art, design, technology, culture and distance

This paper details a workshop aimed at exploring opportunities for experience design through wearable art and design concepts. Specifically it explores the structure of the workshop with respect to facilitating learning through technology in the development of experiential wearable art and design. A case study titled Cloud Workshop: Wearables and Wellbeing; Enriching connections between citizens in the Asia-Pacific region was initiated through a cooperative partnership between Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Griffith University (GU). Digital technologies facilitated collaboration through an inter-disciplinary, inter-national and inter- cultural approach (Facer & Sandford, 2010) between Australia and Hong Kong. Students cooperated throughout a two-week period to develop innovative wearable concepts blending art, design and technology. An unpacking of the approach, pedagogical underpinning and final outcomes revealed distinct educational benefits as well as certain learning and technological challenges of the program. Qualitative feedback uncovered additional successes with respect to student engagement and enthusiasm, while uncovering shortcomings in the delivery and management of information and difficulties with cultural interactions. Potential future versions of the program aim to take advantage of the positives and overcome the limitations of the current pedagogical approach. It is hoped the case study will become a catalyst for future workshops that blur the boundaries of art, design and technology to uncover further benefits and potentials for new outcomes in experience design

Taking real-life seriously : an approach to decomposing context beyond 'environment' in living labs

The maturity of Living Labs has grown and several researchers have tried to create a uniform definition of what Living Labs are by emphasizing the multi-method and real-life, contextual approach. Although researchers thus recognize the importance of context in Living Labs, they do not provide insights into how context can be taken into account. The real-life context predominantly focuses on the in-situ use of a product during field trials where users are observed in their everyday life. The contribution of this paper will be twofold. By means of a case study we will show how context can be evaluated in the front end of design, so Living Lab researchers are no longer dependent on the readiness level of a product, and we will show how field trials can be evaluated in a more structured way to cover all components of context. By using a framework to evaluate the impact of context on product use, Living Lab researchers can improve the overall effectiveness of data gathering and analysis methods in a Living Lab project

Exploring the Benefits of Using Gamification and Videogames for Physical Exercise: a Review of State of Art

There is a lack of motivation in children and adolescents to do physical exercise and at the same time a worldwide obesity epidemic. Gamification and active videogames can be used to increase the motivation of young people, promoting healthy habits. In this work we explore different studies on active videogames, eSports and gamification applied to physical exercise and health promotion. Main findings include positive effects in a reduction in body weight and in the promotion to continue performing of physical exercise. It also contributes to increase the motivation in children and adolescents to practice exercise. The personalization of user experience and emerging technologies (big data, wearables, smart technologies, etc.) are presented as promising opportunities to keep the engagement in game-based program and gamification of physical exercise