Abstract:The project "topography of Dante's inferno" is an experiment on alternative mode of access to a complex text relying on an evident topographical structure. The artifact (a website) is designed with the aim of introducing young students (11-14 years old) to a text usually read and studied by older students (16-19 years old). The design of the artifact was based on the theories of Sinsemía applied to interaction design, and the testing focused on (1) usability and (2) on the understanding of the topography of the poem as a precondition for understanding the text.
In this paper we discuss the theoretical linguistic and graphic preconditions of the design of PASS, a glyph system which we designed for use in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) habilitative practices that has been released under open source licence.
We highlight the relevance of graphic design supporting sustainable practices for people with Autism Spectrum Di- sorders (ASD), in a context in which the o er of public healthcare services for rehabilitation is insufficient.
We present the context in which the AAC is adopted and how a glyph system can be used by people with ASD to learn a language. is particular group of users can access a language by using the glyph system as an interlanguage or as an alternative language.
We analyse the most common glyph systems (ARASAAC, PCS, WLS, Blissymbolics), highlighting their strengths and weaknesses from a graphic and linguistic point of view.
We present the theoretical background of the design process for the PASS glyph system.
In particular, we provide an in-depth description of the graphic design strategy, which aims to develop a systematic and consistent approach to the construction of the glyphs. This approach is grounded in a reflection on how to solve the linguistic problems raised by the valency model and Chomsky’s generative grammar theory in the visual domain.
We have designed the core of the glyph system by detecting the pertinent visual and linguistic variables in literature, with the objective of developing the system for clinical experimentation.
The Topography of Dante's Inferno" is a synsemic interactive artifact which is designed for 11-14 years old students. The design process has been based on the fundamental concepts of synsemia, which lead to an artifact that includes and combines different didactic mediators; in particular, in this article is described more in detail the fundamental concept of reference frame. The reference frame can be described as the frame (consisting of graphic elements) which allows to contextualize the graphic elements of a synsemic text. The artifact has been qualitatively evaluated in two focus groups (one with 12 teachers in training and one with 12 teachers in service), in which some reflections emerged, like some misinterpretations due to a more or less correct design of the reference frame and the didactic mediators.
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