Keywords

1 Background

This paper shows the conceptual design of a wetsuit with heating system. This heating system is activated via an intuitive interface that was created based on the human body language. This design results from international workshops, realized by the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), the Industrial Design Department of the University of Florence (Italy) and Design Course of the University of South of Santa Catarina (Brazil), within the research project Rights Through Making. Here, the fourth edition of the workshop is described/commented, which took place in Florianópolis – Brazil, entitled: Rights Through Making – Cultural Waves: Extending local identities, skills and manufacturing to global markets.

2 Methods

The objective of the “Rights Through Making” Workshops is to develop products with the objective of promoting the respect of human rights, as part of daily lives of multicultural societies.

The Fig. 1 shows Rights through Making’s approach of a design process. The main phase is “conceptualising by making”, constituted by cycles of reflection-on-action, triggered by creative techniques and boosted by the construction of low-fi experienceable prototypes.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

The rights through making workshop’s model. Source: Trotto (2011)

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In addition, the following is the structure that lists the steps and the related activities that have been proposed to students to lead through the design process of the fourth workshop.

  1. 1.

    Theme introduction

  2. 2.

    Dividing into teams

  3. 3.

    Inspirational support/context information the essence and the state of art of wearable technologies and the role that designers play in this scenario (Stoffel Kuenen) a brief account of the indigenous pre-existence of Santa Catarina – the element of recognition that was defined as a base for the brand repositioning (Marco Aurélio Nadal De Masi - a cultural anthropologist of the University of South of Santa Catarina) Original people of Santa Catarina - Mbyá Guarani in specific. (Jaci Rocha Gonçalves)

  4. 4.

    Inputs from contributors

  5. 5.

    Applying creative techniques choreography of Interaction (Ambra Trotto) (silent) Presentations

  6. 6.

    Conceptualization by Making (experience able prototyping) - designing form, function, interaction

  7. 7.

    Results

3 Results

The workshop was articulated based on these main steps: Task, theme and assignment.

Each student team received one article of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They should materialize the values expressed by a specific article. This meant that the design that resulted from the workshop was a product or a system that empowered people towards the realization of fundamental Human Rights. The authors of this study received Article 13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The second layer was the theme: before each workshop, coaches from both funding institutions defined a general theme that they wanted the student to address to. This theme was the field in which a most specific assignment was defined and given to students, which clarified more specifically the theme and the expected deliverables. The theme of the fourth workshop was: Cultural roots of Santa Catarina.

The assignment was to develop an intelligent wearable product, which: materialises the given UDHR article and transforms local values into fashion values.

The information connection between Article 13 and the theme Cultural roots of Santa Catarina is represented in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Analysis synthesis about article 13 and cultural roots of Santa Catarina

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3.1 Yyrupigua: A Wetsuit with Heating System

The wetsuit concept (see Fig. 3) was inspired by characteristics of amphibians, so it was proposed a product that provides freedom of movement and adaptability into several environments.

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Yyrupigua Wetsuit

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In order to add value to the wetsuit as a genuine product from Santa Catarina, it was inserted the conceptual cultural values of the indigenous tribe Mbyá Guarani (native people of the Santa Catarina coast – identity of the local culture). The Mbyá Guarani have a close relationship with nature and use animals as spiritual guides and protectors; therefore, this wetsuit model was named Yyrupigua, which in the Mbyá language means amphibian.

3.2 An Intuitive Interface Based on Human Body Language

The activation of the heating system made through an intuitive interface without buttons or display. The idea of the interface resulted from the observation of human body language, as shown in the figure below:

The Fig. 4 shows how the heating system is turned off (Fig. 5).

Fig. 4.
figure 4

Intuitive interface to active heating system

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Fig. 5.
figure 5

Intuitive interface to turn off the heating system

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The Fig. 6 shows the organization and position of the heating system in the Yyrupigua wetsuit.

Fig. 6.
figure 6

Heating system

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