Bronzo Educazione · 2026
Tactilelink Sistema educativo di grafica tattile
by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin
- A' Design Award di Bronzo 2026 in Educazione
- CLIENT: Nuoran Chen
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 6,726
- Verification code 202D92AF93 · Verify this award
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About Tactilelink Sistema educativo di grafica tattile
Tactilelink è un sistema educativo di grafica tattile per studenti ciechi e ipovedenti. L'istruzione tradizionale mano su mano limita l'autonomia dello studente e dipende da un numero esiguo di insegnanti specializzati. Tactilelink unisce una cornice per tablet stampata in 3D, grafiche a linee in rilievo di schemi elettrici e un software multipiattaforma. La sonificazione guida ogni studente verso un componente prestabilito, poiché l'altezza e l'intensità del suono variano in funzione della distanza del dito. I docenti possono seguire più studenti contemporaneamente e predisporre annotazioni audio per una revisione autonoma dopo la lezione.
About the A' Design Award di Bronzo
Tactilelink Sistema educativo di grafica tattile ha vinto l'A' Design Award di Bronzo, un riconoscimento altamente prestigioso conferito a design eccezionali che si distinguono per creatività, ingegno e astuzia. I vincitori di Bronzo sono manufatti ampiamente abili e sorprendentemente creativi che autenticano la vasta esperienza, l'immaginazione e l'intraprendenza dei loro designer. Ci si aspetta che Tactilelink Sistema educativo di grafica tattile sia un oggetto molto apprezzato, ammirato e amato, notevolmente professionale e innovativo. Questo design vincitore dell'A' Design Award di Bronzo incorpora le migliori pratiche dell'arte, della scienza, del design e della tecnologia, ed è eccellente per l'attenzione al dettaglio. Tactilelink Sistema educativo di grafica tattile soddisfa splendidamente i bisogni, tocca i desideri, affascina i sentimenti e attira la curiosità.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Tactilelink is an affordable tactile graphic education system for blind and visually impaired students. Traditional hand-over-hand instruction limits students' independence and strains an already scarce specialist workforce. SoundPath lets a single instructor guide multiple students at once through sonification and voiceover annotations, making tactile graphic learning accessible, scalable, and independent.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The physical components include a 3D-printed tablet frame (290 × 226 × 7 mm) and several tactile graphics of Arduino diagrams (279.4 × 215.9 mm). The digital component is cross-platform software that works as both a tablet app and a desktop web app, creating a flexible teaching system.
- Tags
- Accessibility, Tactile graphic, Education system, Inclusive education, Blind Arduino
- Production Technology
- Tactilelink is built with simplicity, affordability, and accessibility in mind. For student’s system, it combines 3D-printed tablet frames with software optimized for common educational tablets, ensuring easy setup and scalability. It uses sonification to guide students in exploring and learning raised-line graphics. For instructor’s system, it’s an one-step, AI empowered software help they instruct multiple students easily, reducing their workload, expanding the educational capacity to more underserved blind students.
- Design Challenge
- The hardest part was shifting from designer to facilitator. Co-design challenged us to suspend our assumptions, especially as sighted designers. We wrongly assumed blind users would prefer vibration cues over sound. In reality, sonification was less fatiguing and more effective. This required overcoming internal bias, embracing user knowledge, and adapting to insights often overlooked due to our own perspective.
- Research
- This research is user-centered design. Our goal was to create an affordable system for teaching tactile graphics to visually impaired students. We observed Blind Arduino sessions and collaborated with the East Bay Center for the Blind, then used co-design workshops, Wizard of Oz prototyping, and usability testing with teachers and students. Results showed sonification on existing hardware best supported group learning, offering insights that impact education, accessibility, and inclusive design.
- Inspiration
- The idea came from observing an Arduino class at the East Bay Center for the Blind, where one instructor had to physically guide each student's hands through circuit diagrams one by one. With nearly 5,000 specialist teachers short across the U.S., this one-on-one model is unsustainable. Inspired by sonification, we use continuous pitch changes to guide students to target components independently, enabling one teacher to instruct multiple students simultaneously, in person or remotely.
- Project Duration
- This project started in August 2024 and finished in December 2024.
- Operation Flow
- During class, the instructor taps a selected component on the tactile graphic for students to explore. Students navigate to the component following sonification guidance: the pitch and intensity of the sound shift based on how close their finger is to the target. Teacher can observes their progress on their interface to provide real-time support. After class, teachers could use the software to create detailed audio annotation and design the component-learning sequence, publishing it to student’s device. Students could review the knowledge independently without teacher’s presence by following the sonification guidance.
