DailyST. Smart textiles as a daily routine

How to produce smart textiles capable of supporting elderly people in cognitive decline and women recovering from complex cancer operations?

How to devise a smart textile capable of monitoring a person’s general health, the evolution of disease symptoms and thus realise personalised prevention?

In the development of smart textiles, we used a human-centred design approach, where human beings with their needs and demands are at the centre.

We interviewed and listened to the people who will use the products once on the market, to understand how textile technology can really support them in their daily lives. Once we identified their needs, we co-designed the solutions together with them, paying particular attention to environmental friendliness throughout the entire production chain: from the choice of materials to the production processes in local companies, to the consumption and end-of-life cycle of the product.

We started by mapping the stakeholders and analysing the needs of those who will use the final product through field research, interviews and a desk research phase.

This was followed by an initial prototyping of the project idea in a co-design workshop conducted together with the future beneficiaries of the product.

Starting from the idea validated in the workshop, the production of the smart textile, the integrated sensors and the related software platform took place.