Human-centered design on the ways to Santiago de Compostela : new artefacts for their sustainability

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how design can add value to the traditional and historical Way of Santiago, identifying design needs and problems that give rise to innovative solutions. The main objective of the research was to develop new products, environments or services that contribute to enhancing the Way of Santiago so that it can be followed with greater safety, comfort, efficiency and pleasure by pilgrims and tourists. The project encouraged master students and designers to build a critical reflection on the knowledge obtained, through a survey, fieldwork, interpersonal contacts and bibliographic review, in order to identify design problems or opportunities for the emergence of new solutions appropriate to the context and user needs. The teaching-learning dynamics was based on the Studio-Based Learning model. The project work resulted in a set of new solutions for the problems identified, to respond to users’ functional needs and socio-cultural interactions, the use of artifacts, emotional aspects, habits and behaviors associated with the project context.