MAPPING PRODUCTS TO INFORM AND GUIDE DESIGN. DEVELOPING A CASE STUDY CARD AS AN ANALYTICAL AND DESIGN TOOL FOR PRODUCTS RELATED TO AUTISM.

This paper presents a method for mapping and analysing Autism-related products, developed within the COmeta project. The paper aims to define a “case study card”: a tool primarily intended for designers, but also useful for the autistic community to compare products and services. The card gathers parameters emerging from the research and enables evaluation using specific metrics, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements, thus facilitating comparative analysis. This contribution is part of a broader research effort resulting from a decadelong collaboration between the COmeta group and the Italian autistic community, deepening the relationship between design and Autism. The paper describes a collaborative, multidisciplinary research initiative that created a concrete, flexible tool. The card can be used during various phases of the design process: in the ideation phase, it helps to reflect, generate and evaluate ideas; during the communication phase, it enables a structured description of product characteristics; and in the validation phase, it serves to verify coherence between the product and specific needs or activities. It is a meta-design tool that is focused, versatile, and useful for analysing existing solutions and orienting new projects. It is not a prescriptive tool but an open resource that can be updated and adapted to different contexts and requirements. The card is available for download under a Creative Commons licence at: https://shorturl.at/bxDYz