Co-designing an Embodied e-Coach With Older Adults: The Tangible Coach Journey

This article describes a tangible interface for an e-coach, co-designed in four countries to meet older adults' needs and expectations. The aim of this device is to coach the user by giving recommendations, personalized tasks and to build empathy through vocal, visual, and physical interaction. Through our co-design process, we collected insights that helped identifying requirements for the physical design, the interaction design and the privacy and data control. In the first phase, we collected users' needs and expectations through several workshops. Requirements were then transformed into three design concepts that were rated and commented by our target users. The final design was implemented and tested in three countries. We discussed the results and the open challenges for the design of physical e-coaches for older adults. To encourage further developments in this field, we released the research outputs of this design process in an open-source repository

Effects of Rare Phytocannabinoids on the Endocannabinoid System of Human Keratinocytes

The decriminalization and legalization of cannabis has paved the way for investigations into the potential of the use of phytocannabinoids (pCBs) as natural therapeutics for the treatment of human diseases. This growing interest has recently focused on rare (less abundant) pCBs that are non-psychotropic compounds, such as cannabigerol (CBG), cannabichromene (CBC), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) and cannabigerolic acid (CBGA). Notably, pCBs can act via the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is involved in the regulation of key pathophysiological processes, and also in the skin. In this study, we used human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) as an in vitro model that expresses all major ECS elements in order to systematically investigate the effects of CBG, CBC, THCV and CBGA. To this end, we analyzed the gene and protein expression of ECS components (receptors: CB1, CB2, GPR55, TRPV1 and PPARα/γ/δ; enzymes: NAPE-PLD, FAAH, DAGLα/β and MAGL) using qRT-PCR and Western blotting, along with assessments of their functionality using radioligand binding and activity assays. In addition, we quantified the content of endocannabinoid(-like) compounds (AEA, 2-AG, PEA, etc.) using UHPLC-MS/MS. Our results demonstrated that rare pCBs modulate the gene and protein expression of distinct ECS elements differently, as well as the content of endocannabinoid(-like) compounds. Notably, they all increased CB1/2 binding, TRPV1 channel stimulation and FAAH and MAGL catalytic activity. These unprecedented observations should be considered when exploring the therapeutic potential of cannabis extracts for the treatment of human skin diseases

Prodotto, Interazione ed Esperienza d'uso

La nostra quotidianità è caratterizzata dalla continua interazione con artefatti, sia fisici che digitali, tangibili ed intangibili; ne deriva una varietà e complessità di esperienze d’uso, positive e negative, in cui è presente una forte componente emotiva. Lo scopo di questo volume è fornire ai designer gli elementi di base e le metriche per comprendere e valutare l’interazione dell’utente con i prodotti, e le esperienze d’uso ed emozioni elicitate. Un focus particolare è posto sull’utente, sia per quanto riguarda il suo ruolo nei processi di progettazione, che per le modalità con cui esperisce un oggetto, con particolare attenzione alle emozioni che vengono elicitate

Prototypes as learning tools for exploring biomaterials

Design as a discipline over time has increasingly drawn closer to other fields, fostering its contamination with other multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. This seeking of connections and contamination resulted in the construction of profiles such as designers skilled in conceptualizing, developing, and communicating responsive solutions to the principles of innovation, ethics, usability, etc. These skills are gained through experience and practice with multiple tools and techniques, among which the effectiveness of the creation of mock-ups and prototypes stands out. The prototyping activity is an already recognized and well-established moment within the design process. No one can write without editing; in the same way, the design process stipulates that, after an initial phase of formal definition of the conceived concept, moments of verification are necessary. These verification moments can be effectively achieved through the creation of tangible artifacts, such as mock-ups and prototypes, terms often used interchangeably

Dialectic and Result: How Dynamics and Interactions of Students' Workgroups Have Changed within Design Schools

The COVID pandemic, for a year now, has required and influenced a profound change in the teaching methods, tools, and dynamics at any school level. Moreover, relationships, interactions, and cooperation among students have also changed. Students in Design universities' courses are often asked to work in groups to ideate and design a product. In these cases, processes of dialogue and comparison between peers have undergone a clear modification, as tools and channels are concerned, and regarding the work organization and conduction, as well. This contribution intends to provide an initial reflection on the models of interaction and organization among Politecnico di Milano’s School of Design students. To define a representation of the online interactions among them during their workgroup activities, two different clusters of students have been selected: A) those who started their university experience during the pandemic period; B) and those who have at least one year of pre-pandemic attendance. A survey was designed. A questionnaire was sent to these two selected groups of students to collect information and details about any new routines acquired during the distance learning experience, dominant emotions and feelings, and even critical reflections on the new normality adopted. This segmentation has yielded structured evidence of the changes in the learning experience and in the collaboration between design students

Learning product design for particular needs: 3ike case study, a bike for children with cerebral palsy

reserved3C. E. Standoli; M. Romero; G. VazzolerStandoli, CARLO EMILIO; Romero, MAXIMILIANO ERNESTO; G., Vazzole

Post-pandemic medicines: towards a new normality

The Covid-19 Pandemic has caused two types of phenomena: on one hand, it has profoundly changed people's lives, calling into question even the most normal behaviours, such as being able to walk out of the house; on the other, it has accelerated the consolidation of new habits, not necessarily appropriate. This is the case of behaviours linked to the dimension of care, of self-diagnosis and the consequent self-care are approaches amplified by the ongoing pandemic, bringing to light the lack of an overall vision of the Italian care system and in particular of the medicine management. This paper explores this issue, firstly offering an overview of the problems and the changes taking place, and then offering some potential openings on project ideas. These openings would rethink the future processes of homecare and the entire drug supply chain, from production to distribution, up to post-sale tracking and consumption, to disposal

Learning product design for particular needs: 3ike case study, a bike for children with cerebral palsy

The aim of this paper is to present briefly a learning process in a Product Design thesis at the Design school of Politecnico di Milano concerning the development of a vehicle for disabled children. The presented work is result of a University-Industry cooperation in a particular area of Product Design field: Inclusive Design and Design for Disability. The role of industrial designer is to mediate between user needs and industry needs [1]. People using industrial products need different solutions also in different conditions, and often, people don't know the best solution for their needs. In order to reach real need of special users, a User Centred Design (UCD) approach [2] is desirable, specially when users have particular needs. Special needs of impaired people and disable population are hardly understandable, and a deep knowledge of each disability is necessary beside direct user involvement. Using official classification [3, 4] it is possible to focalize the work, but, in any case, each person with disability is a particular case. The present thesis project is referred to a bike for children with Cerebral Palsy (CP). CP is a non- progressive lesion of the central nervous system developing [5], due to a brain injury before birth, during birth or immediately after birth. CP is the most important cause of disability in childhood. Compared with the other children, those with CP have lower muscle strength, a muscular hypertonia, decreased range of motion, posture and motor control alterations and changes in gait. These are the reasons why it is important to propose them a regular physical activity, such as cycling, to improve their health condition [4]. Different studies sustain the importance of physical activity, and suggest cycling as a rehabilitation tool to improve strength and cardiorespiratory fitness [6, 7]. After the individuation of the users\u2019 needs and capabilities, the research has been focused on the aids for impaired people, specially bikes. This research process has been finalized to understand the relation between child and bike and to emphasize the main characteristics of these products. In this situation of special \u201cconsumers\u201d, Companies need to apply special strategies of production and commercialization, and designers need to have specific skills: need to be self confident in User Research and User Engagement, in Anthropometry and Biomechanics and well prepared on small scale production technology. Designer must be able to produce adaptable solutions, but at the same time, they need to be able to conceptualize inclusive products. Products with \u201cnormal\u201d and pleasurable external shape. The paper present the learning process conducted in the relationship between student, university tutor and industrial supervisor for development of a new product applying UCD methods

Listen, Observe, Make: Moving the Traditional Design Teaching Domains in the Distance Learning Age

More than a year after the first reactions to the shift of educational activities from classrooms to homes - where digital tools have become gateways to new ways of disseminating knowledge - the methods and strategies of defining teaching activities have not undergone substantial structural changes. The contribution will focus on the following aspects: i) home didactics, how the domestic space modifies teaching methods and effects; ii) linguistic tools, and the necessary change of communicative strategy in the verbal and virtual translation of tacit and tangible knowledge; iii) design practice, in its relational dimension between experimentation and validation. Starting from these three elements, is it possible to intervene in the forms of the new digital didactics through a shift from the visual dimension of learning to the factual dimension of understanding? This article tries to problematize the future path that will meet the transfer of knowledge and skills with reference to the teaching paths of design schools in a scenario of distance learning

Learning from mistakes. Patient centric design education experience

Rough, systematic and random errors unravel along the relationship path between the user and the medication-product. A relationship that lasts the "time" of care and that sees the user as interpreter of different roles and situations. It is the care for oneself, but also one in which the role is to assist someone else. An experience that moves along a path that goes from prescription to dispensation and finally to effective treatment: three fundamental moments in which different actors, often unrelated to each other, could contribute to the propagation of the error, but not only. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, sick people, relatives, carers, interface themselves with names, boxes, openings/closures, graphics, instructions, shapes, colours, recipes, words, pills, capsules, syrups, vials, and then weights, measures, doses, half doses, quarter doses, in an experience in which precision and imprecision seem to be the sides of the same coin. The problems of clarity of "understanding" between medication object and user are complex and refer to logical-spatial correlations between what one wants to do (or make do) and what appears feasible. If the most obvious (and most investigated) error is often connected with the communicativefunctional practices of packaging, the risk is to lose sight of other sets of practices on which so many possible “errors” depend. The work presented is part of the basic research Care for Care! Shaping Medication: Question of Identity, Use and Communication (FARB Project, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design). Starting from the consideration that a significant percentage of errors and/or difficulties in taking pharmacological therapies derives from info-communicative deficiencies, from the lack of identifying signs and from the inadequate design attention to "medication" product, the research proposes a design-oriented approach to the pharmaceutical product system. Design is framed as a necessary discipline because it is capable of a broad meta-project vision where medicine is part of a broader context of use, function and experience. A design vision in which the centrality of the user becomes a guiding element in order to foster a different interpretation of the medicine-product. The recognition of knowledge as a context characterized by a systemic and non-linear process - in which precisely its fallibility represents the possibility of improvement and progress - leads design to assume the error and its mapping, as a starting point to trigger new trajectories for the improvement of the product-pharmaceutical design. The article highlights a particular way of learning that takes place in the use of objects, which does not point out best practices but focuses on errors, improper uses, abuses, misunderstandings as a basis to train sensitivity and refine attention on the issue of interaction between person and object