Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 A' Design Award nga Bronse in Disenyo sa Edukasyon, Gamit Pangtudlo ug Sulod sa Pagsanay Competition Category.

BronseEdukasyon· 2026

Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic

by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

Client: Nuoran Chen

A' Design Award nga Bronse Winner in Edukasyon Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #177478

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic

Ang Tactilelink usa ka tactile graphic nga sistema sa edukasyon alang sa mga estudyanteng buta ug adunay kakulangan sa panan-aw. Ang tradisyonal nga pagtudlo nga kamot-sa-kamot naglimite sa kaugalingnan sa estudyante ug nagdepende sa nihit nga gidaghanon sa mga espesyalistang magtutudlo. Ang Tactilelink naghiusa sa 3D printed nga tablet frame, mga raised line graphic sa mga diagrama sa sirkito, ug cross platform nga software. Ang sonification naggiya sa matag estudyante ngadto sa target nga komponente, samtang ang tono ug kakusog sa tingog mausab uban sa distansya sa tudlo. Ang mga instruktor makasubay sa daghang estudyante sa samang higayon ug makaandam og mga audio annotation alang sa kaugalingnong pagribyu human sa klase.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award nga Bronse

Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic usa ka mananaog sa A' Design Award nga Bronse, usa ka labihan ka prestihiyoso nga pag-ila nga gihatag sa talagsaon nga mga disenyo nga gipaila sa pagkamamugnaon, kaabtik, ug kamatngon. Ang mga mananaog sa Bronse mga hanas kaayo ug makapahibulong nga mamugnaon nga mga artipakto nga nagpamatuod sa dakong kasinatian, imahinasyon, ug kaabtik sa ilang mga tigdesinyo. Gilauman nga ang Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic mahimong gipabilhan, gihangaan, ug gihigugma nga butang nga talagsaon ang pagkapropesyonal ug bag-o. Kini nga disenyo nga nakadaog og A' Design Award nga Bronse naglakip sa labing maayong mga praktis sa arte, siyensya, disenyo, ug teknolohiya ug maayo kaayo tungod sa pagtagad niini sa mga detalye. Tactilelink Sistema sa Edukasyon sa Tactile Graphic nagtagbaw sa mga panginahanglan sa matahom nga paagi, nag-igo sa mga tinguha, nagbihag sa mga pagbati, ug nagdani sa pagkamausisaon.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Tactilelink is an affordable tactile graphic education system for blind and visually impaired students. Traditional hand-over-hand instruction limits students' independence and strains an already scarce specialist workforce. SoundPath lets a single instructor guide multiple students at once through sonification and voiceover annotations, making tactile graphic learning accessible, scalable, and independent.
Dimensions & Packaging: The physical components include a 3D-printed tablet frame (290 × 226 × 7 mm) and several tactile graphics of Arduino diagrams (279.4 × 215.9 mm). The digital component is cross-platform software that works as both a tablet app and a desktop web app, creating a flexible teaching system.
Tags: Accessibility, Tactile graphic, Education system, Inclusive education, Blind Arduino
Production Technology: Tactilelink is built with simplicity, affordability, and accessibility in mind. For student’s system, it combines 3D-printed tablet frames with software optimized for common educational tablets, ensuring easy setup and scalability. It uses sonification to guide students in exploring and learning raised-line graphics. For instructor’s system, it’s an one-step, AI empowered software help they instruct multiple students easily, reducing their workload, expanding the educational capacity to more underserved blind students.
Design Challenge: The hardest part was shifting from designer to facilitator. Co-design challenged us to suspend our assumptions, especially as sighted designers. We wrongly assumed blind users would prefer vibration cues over sound. In reality, sonification was less fatiguing and more effective. This required overcoming internal bias, embracing user knowledge, and adapting to insights often overlooked due to our own perspective.
Research: This research is user-centered design. Our goal was to create an affordable system for teaching tactile graphics to visually impaired students. We observed Blind Arduino sessions and collaborated with the East Bay Center for the Blind, then used co-design workshops, Wizard of Oz prototyping, and usability testing with teachers and students. Results showed sonification on existing hardware best supported group learning, offering insights that impact education, accessibility, and inclusive design.
Inspiration: The idea came from observing an Arduino class at the East Bay Center for the Blind, where one instructor had to physically guide each student's hands through circuit diagrams one by one. With nearly 5,000 specialist teachers short across the U.S., this one-on-one model is unsustainable. Inspired by sonification, we use continuous pitch changes to guide students to target components independently, enabling one teacher to instruct multiple students simultaneously, in person or remotely.
Project Duration: This project started in August 2024 and finished in December 2024.
Operation Flow: During class, the instructor taps a selected component on the tactile graphic for students to explore. Students navigate to the component following sonification guidance: the pitch and intensity of the sound shift based on how close their finger is to the target. Teacher can observes their progress on their interface to provide real-time support. After class, teachers could use the software to create detailed audio annotation and design the component-learning sequence, publishing it to student’s device. Students could review the knowledge independently without teacher’s presence by following the sonification guidance.
Team Members: Nuoran Chen
Yilin Niu
Siming (Susie) Jin