Citizen science has increasingly enabled citizens to collect large volumes of hyperlocal urban and environmental data through low-cost sensors, mobile applications, and DIY technologies. However, a critical gap persists between data generation and meaningful civic action: while citizens contribute data, they often lack access to the advanced tools required to interpret, contextualize, and act upon it. This gap is further amplified by the growing role of Artificial Intelligence in urban decision-making, where opaque, expert-driven AI systems risk marginalizing citizen agency and local knowledge.

Urban well-being (UWB) is increasingly recognized as a complex, multidimensional construct influenced by sociocultural and geographic contexts. Yet, existing approaches to assessing local perceptions of UWB often depend on standardized indicators, limiting sensitivity to context-specific priorities. This paper presents the Urban Well-Being Deck (UWBdeck), a participatory, card-based method designed to explore citizens’ situated perception of UWB. We conducted eight workshops across multiple cities, engaging 140 participants and collecting 256 participant-generated proposals. A thematic analysis of collected data revealed 22 distinct themes of UWB, highlighting both cross-city variation and underrepresented dimensions in existing indexes. This work contributes a participatory method for context-sensitive user research and offers empirical insights that advance ongoing discussion on subjective and objective dimensions of UWB.

In this paper, we present a study aimed at evaluating how ChatGPT-4 understands end-users’ natural language instructions to express automation rules for smart home applications and how it translates them into Python code ready to be deployed. Our study used 34 natural language instructions written by end users who were asked to automate scenarios presented as visual animations. The results show that ChatGPT-4 can produce coherent and effective code even if the instructions present ambiguities or unclear elements, understanding natural language instructions and autonomously resolving 94% of them. However, the generated code still contains numerous ambiguities that could potentially affect safety and security aspects. Nevertheless, when appropriately prompted, ChatGPT-4 can subsequently identify those ambiguities. This prompts a discussion about prospective interaction paradigms that may significantly improve the immediate usability of the generated code.

A B S T R A C T Micro-electronics tools, coupled with card-based tools, are employed for prototyping smart devices with nonexperts.Lately, researchers have started investigating what tools can actively engage people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in their prototyping.This paper posits itself in this line of work.It presents a toolkit for ID people to rapidly prototype together their own ideas of smart things, for their own shared environment.It analyses and discusses engaging or disengaging features of the toolkit in light of the results of two workshops with eight ID participants.Lessons of broad interest for the design of similar toolkits are drawn from the literature and study findings.

Recent developments in accessible electronic-making toolkits have opened up avenues for individuals with intellectual disabilities(ID) to actively participate in creating their own smart objects based on the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. These toolkits present a novel opportunity to foster the inclusion of this often-under-considered community in the development of personalized solutions that can impact their autonomy and well-being. However, understanding IoT encompasses comprehending the inter-object connection paradigm at the core of this technology, an aspect that is not adequately covered by the existing accessible toolkits. To fill this gap, this paper illustrates the design and evaluation of MakeNodes, a tangible toolkit to involve people with ID in making smart-thing networks in a guided, collaborative, and engaging way. The toolkit comprises a series of input and output nodes that can be paired to make any object or surface smart. The paper illustrates how MakeNodes empowers people with ID through IoT-making activities that promote collaborative work to address personal needs. Key findings are discussed in the form of lessons learned concerning the importance of physical and visual elements, hands-on exploration, and interaction robustness in improving the accessibility of IoT-making toolkits for people with ID.

Digital well-being traditionally means limiting the effects on individuals of technology abuses.However, in a broader perspective, it can be crucial to consider the pervasiveness of technology, and the effect it can have not only on individuals but also on their peers in the context of diverse everyday-life situations.Within this view, which emphasises the social side of digital well-being, the paper argues the need of educating young generations to participate in the making of technology for a social goal and have a reflective attitude towards technology and its impact on society.It, therefore, presents a design toolkit as a means to (i) engage young generations to become active in design for social digital well-being and, thanks to the exposure to how technology works, (ii) reflect deeply on the pros and cons of technology in use in their everyday life.By presenting the results of a study with 24 high-school pupils and their teachers, the paper discusses how a phygital toolkit, which structures the design process, engages them in the rapid prototyping of their own smart things, and how it acts as a proxy for soliciting their own reflections around technology and social digital well-being.

Smart things are everywhere: smart watches, smart jewellery, smart art installations. All have in common the capability of sensing with input devices (e.g., buttons), computing, reacting with output devices (e.g., light matrices), and connecting with other smart things. Engaging their end users in their design can be challenging and yet give end users unique empowering opportunities. Toolkits are fundamental for engaging end users and enabling them to design. This paper presents the IoTgo phygital toolkit for smart-thing design with end users who are not experts, e.g., artists and school learners, which results from co-design actions and interventions in the field.

Designing smart things, so as to ideate and program them, is a complex process and an empowerment opportunity. Toolkits can help non-experts engage in their design, that is, in their ideation and programming. This paper presents the IoTgo toolkit, made of card-based material and digital components. Playing with IoTgo can help understand the design context, ideate smart things for it, make them communicate and program them with patterns. In recent years, IoTgo was used and evolved at a distance with few participants. This paper presents a study with it, for the first time in presence, in a high-school. Results are discussed and suggest what role IoTgo or similar toolkits can play in the rapid design of smart things with non-seasoned designers or programmers.