Conference Agenda

This paper explores how Generative Design (GD), Additive Manufacturing (AM), and multi-stakeholder design approaches can inform engineering education for assistive technology innovation. Drawing on two research projects DIGICLAP and PREMIER, it analyses how these methods support the development of adaptive, personalised, and user-centred devices. The study identifies critical gaps in current curricula, particularly in co-design practice, Product–Service System (PSS) thinking, and the application of feedback-driven design. Based on these insights, it proposes targeted educational strategies that integrate GD, AM, and stakeholder collaboration into project-based and interdisciplinary learning environments. These findings contribute to ongoing efforts to align engineering education with the complex, evolving demands of human-centred assistive device design.

Sustainable urban mobility is crucial for fostering environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially inclusive cities. The transportation sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, making it imperative to develop sustainable mobility solutions that minimize environmental impact while meeting the needs of urban residents.

Smart mobility solutions and digital platforms are critical tools in the transition toward sustainable urban environments. For instance, mobile applications can encourage citizens to choose public transportation or active modes of transportation like walking and cycling. Services like BlaBlaCar promote car-pooling by providing a trustworthy, user-friendly service. Over the past two decades, digital interventions aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of mobility practices have proliferated globally. Digital “shared mobility” and emerging, more sophisticated “mobility-as-a-service” platforms which integrate multiple services into a single portal, have become prominent in reworking everyday urban transport in cities.

As these technologies become part of urban life, designing seamless interactions with them is essential for smoother sustainability transitions. Equipping future designers with the tools to address complex urban mobility challenges is crucial to pave the way for cities prioritizing sustainability and inclusivity in their transportation systems.

This paper presents a User Experience course designed to equip students with skills and insights to create innovative digital solutions that enhance urban mobility while promoting sustainability. Focused on a metropolitan city in Eastern Europe, the course explored the intersection of design education and sustainable transportation, emphasizing the critical role of digital platforms in reshaping urban mobility.

The course followed a project-based learning approach and adopted design thinking methodology. Students were introduced to key concepts related to sustainability, urban mobility and the latest digital technologies facilitating sustainable mobility systems. Through exploratory user research, discussions and collaborative brainstorming, they identified specific mobility issues in the city, laying the groundwork for their projects. They developed interactive prototypes of their solutions to gather feedback from prospective users.

In this paper, we present the course design and structure, along with two standout projects that exemplify innovative thinking and practical application of sustainable urban mobility solutions. The first project focused on developing a digital platform offering personalized route planning based on users input such as regular routes they used, preferred transportation mediums, priorities (comfort vs. time) and suggestions from friends and family. This project aimed to provide a trustworthy and personalized route planning experience in a city with diverse mobility options. The second project targeted short-distance taxi usage, addressing commuters’ tendency to opt for taxis instead of walking, cycling, or ridesharing for short distances. The students developed a mobile app, allowing users to see ‘other’ transportation options while calling for a taxi. By comparing different transportation options based on pre-selected criteria such as price and time, students aimed to discourage taxi usage.

The presentation of the course design, selected projects and our reflections on the design process and the outcomes can inspire other design educators in planning and executing project-based design courses that empower students to become innovative problem solvers capable of contributing to more sustainable and resilient urban environments.

Contemporary websites typically follow a classic modern design philosophy: precise, highly structured, cold, and rational. This study examines how basic website design elements evoke emotions in users. Combinations of colour, brightness value, and icon shape were used to create twenty distinct iterations of web loading pages. Participants consisted of twenty undergraduate students from XYZ University. To analyse the participants’ emotional reactions to the stimulus, their pupil diameter measurements were taken using Tobii eye-tracking glasses, and they self-reported their emotional responses to each loading page verbally. The results showed that, on average, blue and green colours were associated with positive emotions, while red and yellow colours were more associated with negative emotions. The black and grey colours showed neutral emotional responses. The lighter brightness values of each colour ranked more positively on average than its darker counterpart. Icon shape differences had little impact on emotional responses. Pupil dilation changes show the blue and green pages have greater arousal than the yellow and red pages. This study provides evidence that web design elements, particularly colour and brightness value, significantly influence users’ emotional responses. As digital web design continues to evolve, studies similar to this could help educators and companies re-evaluate their traditional perceptions of web colour and icon shape decisions.

Engineering education research is widely considered to take positivistic approaches, focussing on objective and observable facts and quantitative data. This grants both authors and readers of papers the reassurance that the evidence presented is sound as it approximates the methods they are familiar with in their technical research. However, evidence-based scholarship, where the best evidence is always considered to be consensus and correlation within a large data set, inherently focuses the voice of the majority, often ignoring outliers. This can be considered contrary to being truly human centred in our design approaches, as we cannot only design for, and support, the needs of the majority. Human centred engineering design should be inclusive and equitable and therefore we must also seek and empower minorities in our processes.

Historically, engineering has been dominated by affluent, able-bodied white men, but efforts have been made over the last few decades to diversify. Most of these efforts though have been focussed solely on getting more women into engineering, thus creating a majority group within the minorities, and not addressing other aspects of marginalisation. Furthermore, little work has been done within engineering and design education to address the impacts of intersectionality, with most looking only at how a single interpretation of one aspect of identity impacts success and inclusion.

Interacting with a physical product is a continuous process where both good and bad behaviours co-exist and constitute the interaction. In Behavioural Design (BD), bad behaviours are also termed problematic behaviours (PBs). Correspondingly, good behaviours are termed non-problematic behaviours (N-PBs) in this paper.

Designers focusing on BD have developed various methods to change PBs but neglected discussion on the functionality of co-existing N-PBs in a target context. This study explores the role of N-PBs in the domain of physical product-related behaviour design (PrBD). Through interdisciplinary discussion of the role of N-PBs, we put forward a hypothesis that N-PBs could serve as references to assist users in rationalising and understanding the changed structures in the target context.

Accordingly, we conducted a tweezer-chopstick experiment with 16 university students, through which we found that, first, N-PBs, as well as corresponding physical structures, not only help users make sense of a redesigned product but also influence, even determine, their acceptance towards the product. Second, users preferred to choose a redesigned product that retained more elements in relation to its original shape.

The integration of real-world case studies into engineering design education enhances students’ ability to develop innovative, human-centred solutions for complex challenges. This paper explores a mechanical engineering undergraduate final year project as a case study for fostering human-centred thinking in engineering and product design curricula. The project focused on designing pharmaceutical packaging tailored to the needs of elderly users, addressing barriers such as limited dexterity, vision impairments, and safety concerns. By employing a rigorous human-centred design process that included user research, prototyping, and iterative testing, the study delivered a packaging solution that balances usability and safety. The importance of designing for diverse user groups, particularly vulnerable populations such as older people, has been emphasised, along with meeting regulatory and practical constraints. Using this project as a case study, educators can introduce students to the challenges of developing human-centred products that evoke a positive user experience in a healthcare context, stressing empathy and ethical considerations. This paper highlights how such projects effectively bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and real-world applications, fostering a mindset of empathy and inclusivity in future engineers. Ultimately, this approach can aid in preparing students to create meaningful innovations that improve the quality of life for diverse populations in various industries.