Conference Agenda

The symbolism of prosthetic limbs has predominantly been about restoring function. However, for prosthetic wearers, symbolism expands to include psychosocial meaning, which has been expressed in prosthetic customizations, collaborations, and artistic explorations. Therefore, an opportunity exists for designers to understand how psychosocial symbolism can be elicited and translated into pros-thetic visual and aesthetic language. The objective of the paper is to develop personalized prosthetics that reflect the principles and convictions of the individuals utilizing them. We conducted a co-design process with three Paralympian amputees to explore and visually represent the psychosocial meanings attached to their prosthetics. The results demonstrate how a collaborative process incorporating design process methods, including mood board creation and concept sketching, can elicit psychosocial meaning, which can then be applied to design. The process shows the potential that design can have for reimagining prosthetic limbs as symbolic objects for purposes of self-expression and advocacy.

Despite the widespread use of self-tracking technologies for promoting personal wellbeing, there is limited research on the monitoring of intimate data, particularly urine. To shed light on the design possibilities within this unexplored domain we designed Aidee, a prototype system composed of an app and interactive device that assists users in performing urine monitoring through qualitative data expression and ambient physicalization. To evaluate our prototype we conducted an exploratory between-subjects study involving 54 participants. Our findings indicate user acceptance for qualitative data expressions in the domain of personal wellbeing. Moreover, our study underscores that the combination of an app and interactive device helped people in consulting their urine analysis results with serenity and in experiencing feelings of support and companionship. With this paper we discuss the opportunities and challenges for designing monitoring experiences to promote intimate wellbeing by combining innovative ways of representation and interaction with data.

Picturebooks have often been studied in the children’s literature field with a focus on child readers, but recent studies have begun to discuss the cross-age aspect that embraces wider audiences. This study explores the design space for a crossover multisensory picturebook that would also engage older adults via positive design approach. In this multidisciplinary study, we aimed to nurture the positive sides of aging by transforming life-long experiences into narratives in the form of a picturebook that embodies memories and transfers heritage in an engaging way during shared reading. Within this scope, we conducted interviews and design evaluations with older adults in a care home. In this paper, we share reflections on the book-making process and discuss how picturebooks can support well-being. Additionally, we speculate on positive interactions that may arise from intergenerational shared reading experiences while adapting a media mainly geared towards children for older adults.

The paper presents the findings of a scoping review to explore the key themes within the digital care domain. The study not only encompasses the research methodology employed, which adheres to established guidelines for scoping reviews—research questions, screening, data charting, and visualization—but also explores the principal themes that emerged in the field of digital care. These themes include Distributed Care, Self-Care, and Health Booster Technologies, each of which is expounded upon in detail. The paper emphasizes how digital technologies, such as mobile applications, wearable devices, and IoT systems, have the potential to reshape the care paradigm by improving and enhancing self-management, care delivery, self-care, and mental health, augmenting overall well-being. Furthermore, the paper places an emphasis on the pivotal role of design in shaping future directions and stresses the importance of adopting a multifocal approach, including participatory and co-design, to navigate opportunities and challenges within this evolving domain.

Young adults are living in an era where nutritional and health knowledge is more accessible and advanced than ever before. However, young adults’ diets are still a concern. The PhD research reported on in this paper aims to suggest behavioural interventions that can align young adults’ individual dietary needs and their long-term goals of eating healthily. Using the methods of diary study, semi-structured interviews and card sorting, this research investigated young adults’ perceptions of their dietary behaviours and experiences of prior interventions, to understand the gap between their ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ in terms of healthy eating. The findings indicated that ‘physical health’ is not a strong enough motivation for young adults to change and that young adults valued social attributes and emotional experiences built into cooking and eating. The paper concludes with possible behavioural interventions, based on the research, which may better align individual needs with long-term goals.