Vanessa De Luca

Guidelines to Design Inclusive Ambient Intelligence Solutions for Human Activity Sharing

The objective of this work is to suggest criteria and guidelines that can be used to design inclusive technological solutions to support human activity sharing in the context of Ambient Intelligence. These guidelines derive from the analysis of previous works in related fields such as cognitive engineering, usability, inclusive design and accessibility. The first step of this work was the definition of a number of principles that enable humans to interact with the environment and with other people through the environment. Each principle is further defined by a number of guidelines that more concretely explain how to satisfy it. The modular organization of the guidelines enables them to be applied for two purposes: the first six principles can be used to guide the design of a generic inclusive Ambient Intelligence system, all together are specifically oriented to the design of human activity sharing systems.

Around Play and Interaction Design Research

The paper presents an inter-faculties experience stemming from the common interests of researchers and designers in ludic interactions between people and interfaces. The new territories mapped by the game and Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigms in everyday communication interfaces are a shift in how design incorporates new functions and meaning. Design itself has become a way to play with artifacts, complex systems and networks. Moving beyond formal and aesthetical use of games, it is possible to bring different competences to reflect together on the interviewing of game and play elements in the design of the daily spaces, objects and activities. The question is how the play paradigm can improve the relationship between people and ambients and, as a consequence, the issues of Interaction Design in the AmI field of study. In this paper we present our initiative to build a multidisciplinary design group. From our synergy three particular areas have been identified as new design sectors in which games are involved in person’s environments.