Participation is free of charge, but registration is compulsory. Due to the fact that that the number of participants is limited, we will schedule according on a first come first serve basis.
The links for the remote sessions will be shared via e-mail. The in-person sessions will take place at AICOS' offices:
Rua Alfredo Allen 455/461 - 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Registrations are now closed.
15:30 — 17:00 GMT
17:00 — 17:30 GMT
Graham Pullin
In Studio Ordinary, our research combines design and disability studies. We do not approach disability as a 'problem' to be 'solved' but as part of the fabric of everyday lives. We are interested in the ways in which design can reflect people's attitudes towards their own disabilities (or undermine them, if these are not considered!) – and in how design might help to change the conversation around disability.
As design researchers, we use making – many different kinds of making – as a way of thinking and learning. Sometimes we make prototypes of concepts to try them out with people, as you might expect. At other times we make things that are more provocative: objects that give visibility to a topic that isn't being talked about enough.
As a collective of disabled and nondisabled researchers ourselves, we work with people with specific lived experience on particular projects: on Hands of X, we considered the materials of prosthetic hands with people with limb difference; on 'Imagining technologies for Disability futures', we are exploring alternative futures for augmentative and alternative communication with people who use (and don't use) AAC.
We have come to think of our collaborators as 'mentors', a term that I will introduce and discuss. Our ethos is to work together as co-researchers – jointly directing the research and co-authoring papers (and manifestos) as well as designing things together.
About Graham Pullin
Graham Pullin is a designer and Professor of Design and Disability at DJCAD (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design) at the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. Here he co-founded Studio Ordinary, a research centre that brings together disabled and nondisabled researchers across critical disability studies and design. He is author of the monograph Design Meets Disability (The MIT Press, 2009; Japanese edition O'Reilly Japan, 2022). Previously, Graham studied at the Royal College of Art and at Oxford University and was a studio head at the design consultancy IDEO.
14:30 — 15:00 GMT
Carla Gomes
Vision impairments vary in causes and severity, affecting people of all ages. Virtual Reality (VR) is a versatile technology with applications in entertainment, education, healthcare, and accessibility. However, as vision is the primary sense engaged in VR, it isn’t typically associated with blind and low-vision users. This presentation explores how VR, can be adapted to serve blind and low-vision users. Based on my Master's research, which focused on a human-centered approach, I’ll share the gathered insights on how we can make VR accessible and enjoyable for people with visual impairments, addressing key challenges and design considerations.
About Carla Gomes
Carla is a designer with a Master’s degree in Industrial and Product Design from the University of Porto, where she conducted research on accessible Virtual Reality (VR) for users with low vision and blindness at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS. Building on her background in Design and Multimedia from the University of Coimbra, she focused on creating immersive, inclusive experiences through human-centered design. Her research involved developing guidelines for accessible VR, exploring how to better incorporate haptics, audio, and alternative interaction methods to engage visually impaired users. Besides her academic research, Carla has contributed to projects in visual identity, web development, communication strategy, and team management for events like Queima das Fitas Coimbra and Shift APPens.
15:00 — 17:00 GMT
Isabella Silva
A practical workshop focused on accessibility annotations and efficient handoff between designers and developers. We will cover:
- How the structure of design elements impacts the experience of users with disabilities.
- The importance of website structuring as a shared responsibility between designers and developers.
- How to identify and communicate key accessibility information in clear deliverables for development.
About Isabella Silva
Isabella is a designer with a bachelor's from the University of Brasília in Brazil and a master’s in Multimedia from the University of Porto. With over 10 years of experience in UI/UX across the public and private sectors, she is dedicated to deepening her knowledge in accessibility and participatory design, aiming to apply these in her work.
17:00 — 17:30 GMT
Joana Vieira
In the fast-paced world of low-code platforms, UX research goes beyond improving interfaces—it drives strategic decision-making. In this talk, I’ll share my experience as a Strategic UX Researcher at OutSystems, a low-code development platform, where user insights help shape product direction. I’ll walk through how we decide where to focus research, conduct studies, and turn findings into actionable strategies that align with both user needs and business outcomes. Drawing from my background in human factors, I’ll also explore how my approach to research is shaped by understanding human behavior, and how UX research can play a strategic role in the high-stakes environment of low-code development.
About Joana Vieira
Joana Vieira is a Strategic Lead UX Researcher at OutSystems, collaborating with product managers to align product strategies with both user needs and business goals. With a PhD in Ergonomics and expertise in human factors and psychoacoustics, she's worked on sound design and usability in healthcare and automotive sectors. Her experience at an innovation company allowed her to experiment with diverse research methods. Although she has always worked in cutting-edge tech environments, her office bookshelf is split between UX Research, Folklore, and Ethnography - turns out understanding people, whether through data or stories, follows the same principles at heart.
14:30 — 15:00 GMT
Ana Vasconcelos
This talk explores the development and implementation of a digital solution designed to support People with Dementia (PwD) in performing meaningful Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) autonomously and safely. AUTONOMOUS leverages Human Activity Recognition (HAR) Artificial Intelligence to monitor activities through a system of smartwatches, smartphones, and ambient sensors, providing real-time guidance that adapts to the evolving needs of PwD. As dementia progresses, AUTONOMOUS evolves from a silent, supportive companion to a proactive guide, helping users maintain autonomy and quality of life while easing caregivers' burdens. The presentation will address the project’s methodological aspects while opening a dialogue on the complex ethical implications of passive monitoring in dementia care. Although continuous monitoring holds potential for enhancing safety and independence, it raises profound ethical questions—especially around privacy, consent, and autonomy—that lack clear answers. We aim to explore how these challenges are being addressed within the project, inviting participants to reflect on strategies to balance dignity and agency while fostering a supportive, non-stigmatizing environment for PwD.
About Ana Vasconcelos
Ana Vasconcelos is a scientist at Associação Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, where she has contributed to the Human-Centred Design team since 2012. With a Master’s degree in Informatics and Computer Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto, Ana’s early research focused on designing and evaluating tablet-based cognitive games tailored for senior audiences. Her current work centers on developing inclusive, technology-driven solutions for diverse users and contexts, where she leads user research, prototyping, and user experience evaluation. Ana has extensive experience across both industry and research projects, spanning domains such as healthcare, aging populations, and assistive technologies. She is particularly interested in the long-term evaluation of technology (through longitudinal studies) and assessing its impact on users’ lives, aiming to create solutions that are both effective and empowering.
15:00 — 17:00 GMT
Ana Correia de Barros & Inês Silva
At a time when the world is unstable and the future uncertain, interest has surged on design fictions and speculative design. At Fraunhofer AICOS, we have been experimenting with Participatory Speculative Design with workers to try to envision ways in which future technology in the workplace can respect and promote worker wellbeing, while being resilient in the face of, e.g., social, climate, or economic crises. In this workshop, we will first introduce you to the project and some of its initial results, and you will then be able to experiment with the materials and techniques we have created to develop speculative, but credible, scenarios towards avoiding the common pitfalls of utopia and dystopia in speculative design.
About Ana Correia de Barros
Ana’s initial training was on industrial design, followed by a PhD in industrial engineering and management, with additional specialisations in ethnography and in business design. Ana’s work has received recognition in the form of design awards, paper awards, and in scholarships which led her to Japan and Germany. She is head of Human-Centred Design at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS and her research looks at inclusive, spontaneous and participatory design in the fields of health and wellbeing, both at home and at work environments.
About Inês Silva
Inês Silva is a researcher in Interaction Design at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS in the Human-Centred Design department. She holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering Sciences and a master’s in Multimedia, specializing in interactive technologies and digital games, both from the University of Porto. Previously, she worked as a class monitor at FEUP and served on the directorial board of the NCGM association at FEUP. Her main interest lies in involving users in the design process to ensure that products meet their real-world needs.
17:00 — 17:30 GMT
Martin Kruse
The high-level UN Summit of the Future recently saw a majority of the worlds nations adopting a Pact for the Future that includes a Declaration on Future Generations. The OECD, the EU and more and more government and companies are focusing on the future using foresight tools to do so. Have you ever wondered about this new thing called foresight, which seems to gain more and more attention. In this presentation Martin dives into foresight, which is not new by any account, it stretches back to the 2 WW and he presents some of the fundamentals in foresight and why is has gained increased attention in recent years and what it can be used for.
About Martin Kruse
Martin Kruse is a Senior futurist and advisor working at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. He has advised governments, multigovernmental organisations, NGO’s and Fortune 500 companies using foresight for more than 20 years.
14:30 — 15:00 GMT
Elsa Oliveira & Cristiana Braga
In this talk, we'll be sharing the work of a multidisciplinary team on the inclusion of explainability in medical decision support systems relying on imagiological data. It will cover the collaborative design workshops and content analysis methods used to elicit and systematise explanations in the context of cervical cancer screening and glaucoma detection.
About Elsa Oliveira
Elsa is a Design Researcher working in the Human-Centred Design group at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS. She has been involved in the design of technological systems for industry and healthcare, with a focus on user research, user interface and user experience design. Elsa’s background is in communication design.
About Cristiana Braga
Cristiana Braga has been a Scientist at Fraunhofer AICOS for over 5 years, driven by a human-centred design approach to developing innovative solutions. With a Master’s in Service Engineering from the University of Porto, she has worked on research projects to understand user needs and co-design practical solutions in clinical and public settings. For the past 3 years, Cristiana has focused on validating the product-market fit of a medical AI system for efficient ophthalmology screening. Her passion for pitching Peeking Window has helped her team secure two Innovation Prizes in 2023.
15:00 — 17:00 GMT
Joana Couto da Silva, Inês Silva & Ricardo Melo
Underlying all technology design are values, which may be more or less conspicuous in the designed artefact. In healthcare, digital technologies which collect and display patients’ data also holds a set of values. When these values—those of the design and knowledge, and those of patients—are not aligned, this may lead to a lack of representation, inclusiveness, or trust in the data. At Fraunhofer AICOS, we are experimenting on how we can design technology built on a shared set of values, and understand how these values are communicated. As such, in this workshop, we will ask you to choose and identify which values are present in the interaction between health professional, patient, and designed artefact, through the act of playing a card game set in the context of healthcare.
About Joana Couto da Silva
Joana Couto da Silva is a Design Researcher working in the Human-Centred Design group at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, with a BA in Communication Design (ESAD Matosinhos) and a specialization course in Interaction, Web and Game Design (FBAUP). Previously, she worked as a research fellow at INEGI and FEUP, seeking to design a series of eHealth short games for rehabilitation recovery. She is currently pursuing a MA in Image Design (FBAUP), aspiring to co-create design research materials that promote playful and embodied experiences as strategies to support participatory design around taboo topics.
About Inês Silva
Inês Silva is a researcher in Interaction Design at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS in the Human-Centred Design department. She holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering Sciences and a master’s in Multimedia, specializing in interactive technologies and digital games, both from the University of Porto. Previously, she worked as a class monitor at FEUP and served on the directorial board of the NCGM association at FEUP. Her main interest lies in involving users in the design process to ensure that products meet their real-world needs.
About Ricardo Melo
Ricardo Melo is a Senior Researcher on the Human-Centred Design team at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS. He has led and collaborated in projects focused on user research methodologies, participatory design, and user-centred evaluation of technology in areas such as digital health and industry. At AICOS he also supervises M.Sc. students and gives training in user research methods, participatory design, and technology assessment.
17:00 — 17:30 GMT
Marta Correia
What is the role of design in promoting scientific and health literacy? How can design transform scientific knowledge into accessible narratives, that engage with a wide range of audiences? Does it have a secret element that empowers us to communicate what is at the limit of our understanding of the world, or even what is mostly unknown?
At the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown – Champalimaud Foundation, the Communications, Events, and Outreach team has a long history of collaborating with designers, illustrators, and scientific data visualization experts, often in experimental ways.
This presentation will showcase a selection of design projects created over the last years to foster impactful connections between the scientific and health communities and society at large.
About Marta Correia
Marta Correia is a Senior Graphic Designer at the Champalimaud Foundation, working with the Communication, Events and Outreach team to shape the institute's visual communication.
She holds a degree in Communication Design from the Fine Arts Academy of Lisbon and also studied at the Maastricht Institute of Arts in the Netherlands. Before joining the Champalimaud Foundation, Marta worked as an editorial designer and independent creative designer for several years, collaborating with companies, cultural organizations, and NGOs. During this time, she began to focus her practice on design for impact, emphasizing meaningful, socially driven projects.
14:30 — 17:30 GMT
Internal Event (not open to the general public).
With funding by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, within the CMU Portugal Exploratory Research Projects Program, grant agreement no. 2022.15724.CMU.
Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS