Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 Brončana nagrada A' Design Award in Obrazovanje, Nastavna Pomagala i Obrazovni Sadržaji Competition Category.

BroncaObrazovanje· 2026

Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja

by Nuoran Chen, Yilin Niu and Siming Jin

Client: Nuoran Chen

Brončana nagrada A' Design Award Winner in Obrazovanje Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #177478

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

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The Design

About Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja

Tactilelink je sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja za slijepe i slabovidne učenike. Tradicionalna metoda podučavanja ruku-na-ruku ograničava samostalnost učenika i ovisi o malom broju specijaliziranih nastavnika. Tactilelink kombinira 3D tiskani okvir za tablet, grafike s izbočenim linijama shema strujnih krugova i višeplatformski softver. Sonifikacija vodi svakog učenika do ciljne komponente, pri čemu se visina i intenzitet zvuka mijenjaju ovisno o udaljenosti prsta. Instruktori mogu istovremeno pratiti nekoliko učenika i pripremiti zvučne bilješke za samostalno ponavljanje nakon nastave.

The Recognition

About the Brončana nagrada A' Design Award

Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja je pobjednik Brončane nagrade A' Design Award, visoko prestižnog priznanja koje se dodjeljuje izvanrednim dizajnima što se odlikuju kreativnošću, domišljatošću i oštroumnošću. Brončani pobjednici izdašno su vješti i upečatljivo kreativni artefakti koji potvrđuju golemo iskustvo, maštu i snalažljivost svojih dizajnera. Očekuje se da Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja bude visoko cijenjen, voljen i njegovan predmet koji je izuzetno profesionalan i inovativan. Ovaj dizajn koji je osvojio Brončanu nagradu A' Design Award uključuje najbolje prakse u umjetnosti, znanosti, dizajnu i tehnologiji i izvrstan je zbog pažnje posvećene detaljima. Tactilelink Sustav taktilnog grafičkog obrazovanja sjajno zadovoljava potrebe, dotiče želje, očarava osjećaje i privlači znatiželju.

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