Author: Tanja Ubert
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Living atlas
This Living Atlas is not a conclusion. It’s a beginning—an unfinished map made through co-creation, friction, failure, and wonder. By sharing this work, I aim to support others in noticing what often goes unseen, unheard, and unread. Let’s build a world that includes everyone.
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Use of AI as a writing aid
Acknowledgment Writing in an academic style does not come naturally to me. To support the development of this text, I used ChatGPT as a writing aid. After formulating my research actions, findings, and sources, I employed the tool to help rephrase and structure my content in a more academic format. This assisted me in refining…
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Experiment: Designing an Inclusive Serious Game to Shift Perspectives on Illiteracy – 1st iteration
As a design researcher, I developed a serious board game aimed at helping literate individuals experience what it feels like to navigate everyday life without the ability to read or write. This experiment builds on the outcomes of earlier puzzle-based experiences and contributes to the broader goal of designing for empathy and inclusion (Harbers, 2021).…
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Experiment: Experiencing Illiteracy Through Design – A Perspective-Changing Puzzle
As part of my design research into social inclusion and accessibility, I created an experiment aimed at giving literate participants a first-hand experience of what it might feel like to be unable to read. The experiment was built around the concept of “designing for empathy” (Mattelmäki, 2006), with the goal of encouraging a deeper understanding…
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Definitions
Low-literacyPeople who can read and write a little bit are low-literate. This means that they do not have the language and/or arithmetic level* to participate in society.*Various designations are used for the level of language proficiency. For non-native speakers we use the NT2 Framework (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). For Dutch speakers we use…
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What Experts by Experience Can Teach Us: Lessons from Illiteracy for Design Research
Research into illiteracy We, as Design researchers, are increasingly called upon to address complex, human-centered challenges. Among these is the persistent issue of illiteracy, a barrier that affects more than 2.5 million people in the Netherlands alone—and millions more across Europe. Yet in the rush to innovate and intervene, we often overlook the most important…
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Experiment translating formal text in to visuals
The subsequent experiment was less successful and became an important moment of reflection within the research. In an attempt to translate formal written texts into images together with an illiterate volunteer, in collaboration with the SOL organization and language ambassadors from the Reading and Writing Foundation (Stichting Lezen en Schrijven), it quickly became clear that…