Thaís Falabella Ricaldoni
UX Lead no Inter e Professora 🇧🇷
IxDD 2021: Latin America
My topic is the result of my Master’s Degree Dissertation, a project that aimed to include and empower inmates through design. This project was deeply rooted in social causes; the social problems that exist within the Brazilian prison system are so numerous that the disrespect for legislation is considered chronic, while the social function of prisons and the social re-integration of inmates is not fulfilled. In short, the national prison system lacks solidarity and the power to change this scenario. In order to help alleviate these issues, inmates from the Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted (APAC), a prison located in Santa Luzia, Brazil, were invited to sixteen participatory design workshops. In these workshops, they developed a business and social innovation project based on the commercialization of bags with stamps designed to raise public awareness about issues involving the prison system and APAC. The workshops dealt with identifying problems and opportunities, the creation of possible solutions, building and testing models, up to project viability. The results of this research show the potential of participatory design to help inmates generate quality project solutions and indicate that a broader application of design from a strategic vision can contribute to social transformation.In this presentation, I will discuss how design can work in a social context, the steps to including inmates in this process, best practices and learning.
