Environment Design to Sustain Users - Workshop 23

Active and Assisted living education workshop. A number of workshops were delivered to attendees on various topics relating to the forum. This workshop was Workshop 23 titled Environment Design to Sustain Users . It was a hands-on workshop and the presentation provided here was used to guide the attendees during that activity

Increasing the Adoption of AAL solutions, Senior Centred IoT, Workshop 9

A number of workshops were delivered to attendees on various topics relating to the forum. This workshop was Increasing the adoption of AAL solutions, Senior Centred IoT, Workshop 9 . It was a hands-on workshop and the presentation provided here was used to guide the attendees during that activity

Computer Aided Drawing software delivered through Emotional Learning. The use of Emoticons and GIFs as a Tool for Increasing Student Engagement.

It is known that one of the key factors for many manufacturing companies, who are involved in the design and development process, is represented by the quality of the skills, capacity and experience of computer-aided design draftsman and designers. This means that effective, up-to-date and engaging training has to be performed by teachers and instructors, since the early stage lectures for novice engineering students. When learners are engaged and actively participate in the training process, then this transfers in to a high, deep level of learning, quality of the learnt topics and perceived passion. The following question arises, “how can the process of improving the absorption of information concerning Computer Aided Drawing software lectures, through an iterative, engaging process, be facilitated?”. This work represents a fist attempt to analyse and discuss, by using some of the main theories related to the learning process, how student engagement can be positively affected by using emoticons and GIFs during CAD software lectures

Perceptions on Digital, Virtual Environments and the Metaverse. An Exploratory Study with Younger Users

Digital, virtual environments and the metaverse are rapidly taking shape and will generate disruptive changes in the areas of ethics, privacy, safety, and how the relationships between human beings will be developed. To uncover some of some of the implications that will impact those areas, this study investigates the perceptions of 101 younger people from the generations Y and Z. We present a first exploratory analysis of the findings, focusing on knowledge and self-perception. Results show that these young generations are seriously doubting their knowledge on the metaverse and virtual worlds – regarding both the definition and the usage. It is interesting to see only a medium confidence level, considering that the participants are young and from an academic environment, which should increase their interest in and the affinity towards virtual worlds. Males from both generations perceive themselves as significantly more knowledgeable than females. Regarding a fitting definition, almost 40% agreed on the metaverse as a “universal and immersive virtual world that is made accessible using virtual reality and augmented reality technologies”. Regarding the topic in general, several participants (almost 40%) considered themselves sceptics or “just” users (38%). Interestingly, generation Y participants were more likely than the younger generation Z participants to identify themselves as early adopters or innovators. In result, the considerable amount of “mixed feelings” regarding digital, virtual environments and the metaverse shows that in-depth studies on the perception of the metaverse as well as its ethical and integrity implications are required to create more accessible, inclusive, safe, and inclusive digital, virtual environments

A validation study on the challenges that architectural design practitioners face when designing inclusively.

Inclusive Design has been widely promoted in the product, engineering and user experience design fields. Notwithstanding the educational effort developed by scholars, practitioners and institutions, Inclusive Design has not flourished in architectural design practice, often being associated with design for disability. This study, which spans the disciplines of behavioural science, ergonomics and the social sciences of architecture, validates early-stage results on the challenges that architectural design practitioners face when designing inclusively. A questionnaire was conducted with 114 architectural design practitioners with knowledge and experience of Inclusive Design. The results highlighted the influence practitioners have in advocating for Inclusive Design among different stakeholders, and the need for tools which support the design and post-design phases for buildings that guarantee inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement N°846284

Meaningful age-friendly design. Case studies on enabling assistive technology.

The world population is steadily ageing and the World Health Organization recently stated that 8.5 percent of people worldwide are aged 65 and over. This cohort is projected to account for 1.6 billion people by 2050. Assistive Technology has been developed over previous decades with a particular aim to support people with disabilities. With the evolution of the market and the introduction of wearable technologies and IoT-based (Internet of Things) appliances, Assistive Technology has been influenced by the discipline of Age-Friendly Design, which has been applied to meaningfully improve the autonomy of a larger segment of the population, including older people. In order to discuss how Age-Friendly Design can influence the response of the market, and how users can better engage and benefit from Assistive Technology, this work aims to critically review, through a case study research methodology, a series of recently developed devices that have the potential to change user perception around Assistive Technology. As a conclusion, the reported case studies represent a preliminary validation of how Age-Friendly Design can represent a meaningful solution for enabling a wider group of people with different ages and abilities. Findings show that user experience, satisfaction and Emotional Design are the key drivers for developing marketable solutions in the area of Assistive Technology

Inclusive spatial learning experience: An exploratory framework to deliver human-environment interactions.

The design of the built environment strongly influences people’s needs, how they learn, behave, and build relationships. Education and learning are part of the nature of human beings, and allow them to develop skills, advance culture, and answer needs. In the current context, the incremental use of technological devices inside spaces has brought several positive outcomes, but also various challenges due to increased complexity. Limitations in considering the diversity of human needs confronted with architecture and technologies may raise stigmatization and exclusion. This article explores the links between the learning theories and the paradigms of user-centered design, providing theoretical affinities able to reduce the exclusion of people during interaction with spaces and objects. The process of the inclusive spatial learning experience aims to stimulate designers to deliver inclusive spaces that provide a progressive discovery of their characteristics and technologies, with the final goal to improve the experience for people with different abilities, age, gender, culture, and various roles within the specific architecture they use and live

A lightweight classification algorithm for human activity recognition in outdoor spaces

The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of a lightweight classification algorithm for human activity recognition in a defined setting. Current techniques to analyse data such as machine learning are often very resource intensive meaning they can only be implemented on machines or devices that have large amounts of storage or processing power. The lightweight algorithm uses Euclidean distance to measure the difference between two points and predict the class of new records. The results of the algorithm are largely positive achieving accuracy of 100% when classifying records taken from the same sensor position and accuracy of 80% when records are taken from different sensor positions. The outcome of this work is to foster the development of lightweight algorithms for the future development of devices that will consume less energy and will require a lower computational capacity

Online-based participatory design: A Case Study of Developing International Standards During a Pandemic

Standards are essential instruments to ensure the safety, efficiency and quality of products, services, systems, processes, and environments. In pre-pandemic times, standard development process used to happen through in-person consultation and meetings, however, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the whole routine. A team of technical experts from the National Standards Authority of Ireland trialled an online-based participatory design process to support the review and development of a standard through stakeholder engagement. This article introduces the experience of developing a new standard by leveraging on emerging digital technologies, through stakeholder participation. This research offers a framework, outlining the steps undertaken during the process, to support future online-based standard development processes in co-operation with stakeholders, by respecting cultures, backgrounds, skills, and experiences