19 May 2009 – 12.09 pm
Nicola Plaisant
Background
My research field, design for social impact, is where the world of design creates instruments and services for society. Because design shapes all artefacts in our world, designers must also provide tools with which people can express political action and support.
I am trying to bridge the gap between the citizen and institutions. People feel disaffected from political parties because parties often don’t carry out their campaign promises. Teenagers are particularly disenchanted: they act only when political actions affect them and their schools, and politicians don’t speak in a way which they can relate to. [more ...]
19 May 2009 – 12.06 pm
Greengrowers is a location-based game for iPhone. Using GPS technology, players can plant virtual seeds in Venetian squares: the aim is to grow and make virtual plants bloom before others do. To make their plants grow, players can use (site-specific) humus, water and sun (from real weather data), and an increasing set of tools. Winners receive real seeds that local institutions will plant in the players’ favourite square. [More]
19 May 2009 – 12.02 pm
The aim of Laundrym is to make an ecological and useful service both attractive and convenient. The project concerns both a mobile phone service that allows people to reserve and monitor machines and to contact their friends to arrange to socialise while their laundry is being done, as well as the design of a simple interface (using RFID technology) for a highly complex washing machine. [More]
19 May 2009 – 11.47 am
Trace is the study of an iPhone software application and its graphic interface. It allows people to record and share their routes and experiences. The user-generated, geotagged travel contents comprise notes, tips, photos, videos and audio recordings. People can contribute individually to broadening or modifying existing routes, characterizing and making them unique. The software and service- system is applied to the Parco Naturale dei Castelli Romani, a national park near Rome. [More]
23 April 2008 – 1.40 pm
SimpliCity is a service that offers the city an innovative way to improve the visibility of events and locations, integrating the physical and virtual world. It brings technological innovation to the distribution of information, that today can satisfy people’s request for multi-modality and access to information in different ways using different devices in different places. [More]