1 Introduction

Choosing a profession is important. The goal, especially for young graduates, is to find a profession that matches their aspirations and aptitudes. On the one hand, in fact, it is essential to be motivated and determined, both to successfully complete the training period and to move later in professional life; on the other hand, being able to evaluate one’s aptitude for a profession allows you to get an idea of how well it suits your interests and abilities.

The evaluation of the training and professional path to follow, therefore, like a project, is an articulated process, which takes place through different paths and using specific tools. There are two equally necessary paths. The first, exogenous, is certainly the comparison with the others. Family, friends and the social context in which you live can influence this choice. The second, endogenous, is the in-depth reflection on the personal and professional experiences that each one has lived. These are accompanied by numerous tools available to young people to orient themselves in the growing offer of higher education oriented towards a professional outlet. Questionnaires, tests, open days, webinars, counseling services: these are some of the tools that universities use to guide future students.

A design discipline, such as industrial design, can bring into play other specific tools that are more specific to it and that refer precisely to the “project”. This is what happened recently in Italy, through a coordinated action between all university degree courses in Design.

2 The Social Dimension of Design: Participation and Inclusion

Among the side effects of the fickle fluidity of contemporary society [1] there is often the disintegration of social networks and human interactions, unless these too are transformed from a material dimension to a lighter and more fluid one. Manzini [2] shows us a possible path in the current composite and dynamic social context, which consists in overcoming individualisms in favor of collective and collaborative actions.

In this social condition, design is more able than other disciplines to construct new behavioral scenarios, defined as design driven, useful for directing society towards new forms of sociality, and therefore modifying the very concept of design, from being associated with specific sectors. to identify new processes and behaviors, and with them new design scenarios. Among these, systemic design, for example, proposes an approach that attributes significant weight precisely to the relationships and interactions between the components of a system, aimed, in addition to enhancing the identity and local resources, to produce development and well-being for both individuals and for the community. It is therefore on behaviors, even at the systemic scale, that it seems appropriate to invest, to pursue the common goal of cooperation rather than competition, and therefore give space to the well-being of all through participatory and inclusive processes [3].

The issues of social inclusion and participation are also the basis of the design approaches for inclusion. Among them, Design for All considers the diversity between individuals as a resource rather than as a limit or constraint for the project, and the equality between individuals, communities and peoples as a strategic and indispensable argument for the sustainable development of contemporary society.

The project experience described in this contribution contains both the themes of participation and inclusion, to which it is also added the environmental dimension of sustainable development. It is in fact an activity aimed at orienting high school pupils in the process of choosing their university training path. The initiative, organized by the Italian Design Universities, was conducted precisely through a participatory design experience, which involved a multiplicity of actors: from families, to schools, to companies, to universities. This is in the idea that the best way to verify one’s aspirations and attitudes is to get involved with a realistic simulation of a specific activity associated with a professional practice, in our case the product designer. Moreover, the themes of inclusion and environmental sustainability also recurred in the project actions that the pupils were required to carry out, having to deal with the project of artifacts related to the themes of eco-design and design for inclusion.

3 The “POT Design/educo-produco” Design Competition: Assumptions and Principles

The opportunity was provided by the participation in the “POT Design Educo/Produco” National Design Competition. The competition, inserted within a funding channel of the Italian Ministry of University and Research for the Orientation and Tutoring of university students, was created with the aim of bringing out their aptitudes and vocations in school pupils and therefore facilitate the conscious choice of university studies.

The competition involved university students, networking with pupils of the last year of high school courses, in the period preceding the graduation. The students, made up of heterogeneous project groups, were invited to design according to two “concrete actions” that respond «to the urgent need for participation, sharing, co-planning of processes that can modify social, cultural and environmental behaviors»Footnote 1.

The competition, in its first edition, involved all Italian universities with degree courses in design, with the aim of supporting young graduates in the conscious choice of their studies. To this end, all the universities involved were required to:

  1. 1)

    Consolidate or establish a virtuous chain involving universities, schools, families, local companies;

  2. 2)

    Expanding or starting specific Didactic-Exploratory Laboratories that favoured the recognition of skills and the development of individual vocations;

  3. 3)

    To involve university students already enrolled in Design Courses more, by training them as “Tutors” and directly assigning them the conduct of didactic-exploratory workshops aimed at school children;

  4. 4)

    Involve Schools in active participation in the Competition, which reserved a cash prize for the winning schools

  5. 5)

    Involving companies, associations and other local stakeholders outside universities.

The basic principle is to extend the educational process to a wider scale than exclusively school or university, involving the participants (university students together with high school pupils, their families and local authorities) in the experimentation of a concrete design action.

In particular, for the first edition of the Competition there were two possible “actions”:

  • The action “Educo” (“I educate”), referring to the identity of environments and places (with particular attention to the dimension of environmental sustainability and eco-design), was aimed at the recovery of an external or internal space of the school or university that it was abandoned and therefore to be redeveloped, restoring its economic-social and perceptual-sensorial value through the deeply ethical and aesthetic value of the project.

  • The action “Produco” (“I produce”), referring to the project of social design artefacts (with particular attention to the themes of social inclusion and usability), was aimed at the design of a product of use that also had a social value.

4 The Engagement Process: Universities, Schools, Families and Companies

Participation in the competition was also based on these assumptions by the University of Chieti-Pescara, which since the establishment of the design groups has been directly confronted with the principles of Design for inclusion. In particular, Design for All, with its attention to the design “process”, appeared to be the most promising and effective approach, both to experiment with the conscious participation of the various actors involved, and to promote social inclusion and equality between different people, peoples and cultures, also through daily activities connected with the primary needs of individuals in their own life contexts.

In the early local organizational phases, a fundamental role was played by the institutions, in particular by the Regional School Office, which, understanding the innovative value of the initiative, immediately activated, promptly informing all the schools in the Region, which in turn promoted the Competition among their pupils. Furthermore, both meetings with schools for the presentation of the announcement and meetings between school teachers and university professors have been scheduled to coordinate strategies for involving students.

Facing numerous logistical and student mobility problems within the regional territory, 53 high school students in Pescara (from the two scientific high schools and the artistic high school of the city) participated in the competition who, together with 13 university students of the degree program in Design have formed 6 distinct design macro groups, 3 for each of the two actions proposed by the competition. The groups carried out their design activities both in the classrooms of the schools and within the university laboratories, under the coordination of the design teachers.

Especially in the initial stages of defining the concepts, the direct involvement of families was also useful and interesting: the students involved parents, grandparents and relatives in identifying the product requirements, in a dialectical comparison sometimes particularly useful also with the second objective to concretely understand what the type of activity of the product designer is, and at the same time to verify together their own propensities regarding the possible choice of the university training course on design disciplines.

With reference to the project themes, for the “I educate” action the planning attention was mainly placed on an aspect attributable to the themes of sustainability: that of the recovery and reuse of rainwater, applied to an area of passage inside of the university campus, identified by students as particularly in need of requalification. For the “I produce” action, on the other hand, the interest has focused on the themes of human diversity referring to the use, even shared, of products that promote social and cultural inclusion in the multiple contexts of everyday life.

Thinking from the beginning of the problem of prototypes realization (required by the competition announcement), the involvement of a local company of ceramic products was particularly significant for all the design groups: it provided both consultancy support technique during the entire development path of the projects (which therefore were deliberately conditioned to use ceramic as a reference material for the projects, with obvious constraints also on the technical, production and dimensional level), and for the contribution provided subsequently for the realization of the ceramic prototypes, all completed on schedule.

5 The Local and National Results of the “I Educate” and “I Produce” Actions

The first edition of the National Design Competition “POT/Design educo-produco” met with considerable success, collecting a total of 194 project proposals from all Italian universities of Design.

The six project proposals presented by the University of Chieti-Pescara (three for each “action” indicated by the announcement), have all reached a good level of design maturity in reference to the issues addressed.

For the “Educo” action, the three projects of the University of Chieti-Pescara, in line with what was defined by the announcement, have declined on three particularly interesting solutions the theme of recovery and reuse of rainwater, through solutions of modular elements according to schemes rigidly defined, to be placed on the ground or on the wall. In particular:

  • Feel Green proposes the design of a sound applique planter inspired by the ocarina and takes advantage of the action of the wind which, channeling into it, generates a pleasant sound. Its bell shape allows the conveyance of air and the escape from the narrowest part where the presence of holes give rise to different sound effects (Fig. 1).

  • Mosaic Pot proposes the design of a system of wall planters that exploit the recovery of rainwater from the drainage channels of the eaves, as an irrigation system. The wall supporting the vessel accommodates a flexible tube that allows the entire system to be irrigated (Fig. 1).

  • Resounding conveyer proposes the project of a canalization created to convey rainwater, normally dispersed, in a passage space. The water recovery system enriches the space through the rhythmic cadence of the sensory elements that communicate the rainy energy of the precious water element. The rhythmic cadence conditions the space that from a marginal place becomes a place of reflection (Fig. 3).

Also for the “Produco” action the students of Chieti-Pescara have shown an equally marked sensitivity to the issues of human diversity and social inclusion, referred to the shared use of everyday products. In particular:

  • Balancing Pot proposes the project of a tilting table pen holder suitable for working environments that are sources of great stress. The purpose is to alleviate the heaviness of work by offering the user moments of well-being, thanks to the contribution of aromatherapy diffused by plants contained in the tilting vases at the end of the object. The concept behind this project was to “heal” the relationship between man and nature through the stable balance of the object, as if it reflected the balance and inner healing of each of us (Fig. 2).

  • Be-You proposes the design of a dividing and at the same time inclusive modular table system, suitable for dividing the workstations of several users in the office. Thanks to the modularity and the possibility of reconfiguration, personalizing the two fronts, and without completely closing the view it favours sharing, socialization and conversation (Fig. 2).

  • Ethnic Plate proposes the project of a serving dish for everyone, the concept therefore arises from the union of some serving dishes. It promotes social inclusion in different social and gastronomic cultures, is suitable for any kind of food, facilitating use for the consumption of food without necessarily having to use cutlery, and which can be placed in the slot of the plate (Fig. 3).

All the projects were developed up to the realization of the ceramic prototypes.

Fig. 1.
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The Feel Green and Mosaic Pot projects

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Fig. 2.
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The Balancing Pot and Be-You projects

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Fig. 3.
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The winners: the Resounding conveyer and the Ethnic Plate projects

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A first selection of the projects, carried out by a commission of professors of the Degree Course in Design of the Chieti-Pescara campus, identified two (one for each “action”) to be sent to the national final phase of the design competition: the project Resounding conveyer project for the “Educo” action and the Ethnic Plate project for the “Produco” action.

Subsequently, the National Jury completed the final selection work, out of a total of 21 + 21 projects admitted to the final phase, appointing three winning projects for each of the two “actions”, with an excellent result for the University of Chieti-Pescara. In fact, its two projects were awarded respectively with the first prize for the “Educo” action (to the Resounding Conveyer project) and the fourth position for the “Produco” action (to the Ethnic Plate project).

6 Conclusions

The design experience conducted by university students with high school pupils proved to be in tune with the cultural and technical-scientific evolution of the training of design students, directing their interests towards sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The results of the training experience proved to be particularly interesting, both for the project contents, oriented by ecological criteria and social inclusion criteria, and for the training process of young university designers, who had to deal with extensive groups of stakeholders, as well as with high school students, who in turn have concretely experienced the difficulties and satisfactions deriving from the project activity, in this case particularly sensitive to the aesthetic-ethical and ecological values that promote an inclusive and sustainable society.