Conference Agenda

Digital Twins are playing an increasingly important role in various industries. At the same time, there is a process of digital transformation across public services, the success of which is related to the quality of Knowledge Management in organizations. The study aims to understand how Digital Twin can enhance Knowledge Management in the Public Sector. Although Digital Twin has already demonstrated its potential in Smart Buildings, Cities, and Industries, there is a lack of results regarding its successful application in the Public Sector. To explore the potential of Digital Twin technologies for public services, this contribution offers an Integrative literature review and describes the creation of the Service Design in the project on Digital Twin of the Public Building. It was found, that only a few studies delve into the use of the Digital Twin in the Public Sector leaving a gap for Service Design with its consolidated methods and a Human-Centered approach. Therefore, this study proposes a new framework for building relationships between concepts of Knowledge Management in the Public sector, Digital twin, and Service design. The latter in a given system is necessary to create a dialogue between stakeholders, experiences, and interactions among them and technology.

This is a case study based on direct interaction with the protagonist. Bikes of Bijnor is an intuitive design-thinking work by an Indian administrative service officer aimed at public bike-sharing. The project was a Government officer's out-of-the-box thinking idea with empathy to use hundreds of leftover bicycles of migrant labourers during covid19 lockdown towards affordable and sustainable bike-sharing in the Indian town of Bijnor after compensating them.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, countries worldwide went for a quick countrywide lockdown. After the announcement of the national lockdown in India, streams of migrant workers started moving to their hometowns by walking and cycling. When the Government aided them in the en-route towns with buses and trains to reach their home, many left their cycles midway and took the buses and trains.

Bijnor is one such town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where hundreds of these cycles got piled up and rusted as iron waste. This condition was noticed by Mr Vikramaditya Singh Malik IAS, the Joint Magistrate of Bijnor town, and he undertook a vital action that had far-reaching effects in terms of inclusion, accessibility and sustainability.

The protagonist took measures to locate at least 100 owners of the leftover bicycles, compensate them, refit their cycles, and use those cycles to create an affordable city bike-sharing system.

This case study documents the intervention through the lens of design thinking and analyzes the impact on Health, Society, and Public Good. Frugal innovation through the Bikes of Bijnor project had a positive effect on public health by promoting cycling as a healthy lifestyle activity, had inclusion as a significant goal by making the use of services affordable for all sections of society and also contributed significantly towards sustainability as a substitute for carbon-emitting vehicles.

This paper examines the role in design education of teaching environmental psychology and culturally responsive design considerations in foundational ergonomic design courses to increase cultural sustainability, empathy and promote wellness in design industry practice.

The research objectives for this experimental action research pedological intervention were to measure changes in student sociocultural sensitivities, changes in features and forms of industrial designs in terms of amplifying product usage and perception, and the level of student engagement in critical thinking through research, activities, and discussion.

Following initial introduction and case studies, several strategies described in this paper, among others, were utilized over the course of three consecutive semesters. They include practical ethnographic assignments, in-class guests, activities, and culturally prompted discussions and reflection. Preliminary results appear to point to a broadening and deepening understanding and relevance of student product designs across different user groups. Similar, but less guided, strategies were later incorporated into the curriculum at the senior level. The students with the early ergonomic education specific to environmental psychology and cultural awareness designed projects that were informed by more advanced user specific research and their product outcomes reflected this priority. When asked about their choices, and re-interviewed later as alumni working in the field, they often cited a growing concern for the sustained relevance their designs have on the diverse populations they are intended to benefit.

This paper considers the contribution to the field of incorporating these student objectives into the design curriculum reflects the industry’s increased priorities on research driven design, more inclusive designs for the global marketplace, and designing for health and wellness. Frequently the top skills employers are looking for today explicitly include Human-Centered Design Proficiency, Cognitive Empathy, Cross-Cultural Design Competence, Cocreation and Collaborating with Multidisciplinary Teams, and Enhanced User Research Techniques. Although it would be difficult to teach environmental psychology and cross-cultural awareness exhaustively at the undergraduate level, even an introduction in core classes like Ergonomics will better prepare designers to evidence these skills and avoid costly mistakes in a rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected world of design and business.

Ergonomics is concerned with more than anthropometrics and design education on the subject needs to encompass perceptions of comfort beyond the physical. To make informed ergonomic choices, empathetic human centred research is pivotal to designers who choose to prioritize and promote enhanced wellbeing, DEI, and culturally respectful behaviors.