Design and disability: emotional impact

This volume collects the results of the Home Care Design for Parkinson's Disease research program, aimed at defining good design practices to enhance the independence and quality of life of people with Parkinson's disease within the home. The volume offers an introductory overview of Parkinson's disease, analyzing the primary and most frequent areas of discomfort and/or difficulties experienced by people with this disease during daily activities. Each environment can cause different emotions and moods in each individual, and if we are talking about users suffering from a neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's, this influence is even stronger; the patient, in this case, needs a domestic system that takes into account not only his needs, opinions and psycho-emotional needs but also those of the caregivers. Therefore, the essay presents specific insights dedicated to the emotional effects connected to the interaction with the environments and products of daily life and, above all, investigates the role that Emotional Design, Empathic Design and the Evidence-based Design (EBD) approach can play in allowing the resolution of problems related to environmental, perceptive-sensorial and stress factors and, in some cases, in slowing down the course of the disease, guaranteeing greater well-being. Furthermore, this contribution aims to provide valuable tools to support designers in building an empathic approach with frail users affected by Parkinson's disease and their caregivers to design for and with them.