As the 2026 iF Design Award announced its winners, three design projects created by students from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) stood out among more than 10,000 global entries to win the prestigious award.
The award-winning projects—the iRest Health Plus massage chair, the Scentra olfactory therapy device, and the TacPad interactive device for the visually impaired—are not only ingeniously conceived and functionally innovative, but also demonstrate how UNNC students translate social care into practice and respond to real-world challenges through design.
A journey of rejuvenation
How can travellers find a moment of tranquillity in a noisy airport terminal? The iRest Health Plus massage chair offers a unique solution—transforming fragmented waiting time into an active journey of physical and mental restoration.
The design team drew inspiration from the structure of cicada wings to create a biomimetic, cocoon-like enveloping structure. When in use, the wing-like panels gently close around the user, while embedded LED lights pulse in sync with their breathing. Accompanied by soft music from built-in speakers, airbags and mechanical massage modules work in tandem, allowing users to relax in a cosy, private space. By scanning a boarding pass, the system identifies flight information and gently alerts the user with lights and sounds before boarding.
"Our supervisor, Professor Xu Sun, guided us to pursue completeness and feasibility in our design logic," Fengyi Zhao noted. "The university-industry collaboration between UNNC and iRest provided the practical foundation for our ideas."
Integrating therapy into daily life
The Scentra olfactory therapy device was born from a real-world problem: each year, millions of people worldwide suffer from olfactory dysfunction, particularly those recovering from viral infections.
"Traditional clinical olfactory training kits consist of multiple essential oil bottles, labels, and a separate timer, making it difficult for many patients to adhere to long-term treatment," explained Kailing Xie, a student in Product Design and Manufacture. "We wanted to transform clinical rehabilitation into a product that fits seamlessly into daily life."
Based on this idea, Kailing integrated four clinically recognised training scents into a four-arm structure. This design ensures the scents remain separate while forming a stable, ergonomic shape. Scentra also features a guided timing system and vibration feedback reminders to help users easily complete their daily therapy. Replaceable scent cartridges support long-term use.
"Scentra not only enhances individual therapeutic efficiency but also helps alleviate the strain on public healthcare resources," commented Dr Jiang Wu, Programme Director for the MSc in Innovative Design.
The product has already been filed for an invention patent, and the team is currently working with industry partners to advance its commercialisation.
Seeing the world through fingertips
In today's visually oriented digital world, visually impaired users primarily rely on voice feedback to access information. However, this approach presents two major challenges: limited content comprehension and low efficiency. TacPad, a tactile interaction device co-designed by UNNC doctoral graduate Ruiheng Lan and his supervisor Professor Xu Sun, addresses this challenge with a novel tactile interaction model.
TacPad is an interactive touchpad whose surface integrates thousands of precisely arranged small holes, each containing a tiny pin. When wirelessly paired with a computer or smart phone, TacPad can instantly recognise the content displayed on the screen and use AI to convert it into Braille or textures. This information is then "displayed" on the panel through the movement of the pins. By touching the raised Braille dots or textures, visually impaired users can identify the content shown on the screen.
“In certain scenarios, such as reading a chart or a table, voice assistants have to describe numbers and cells one by one, making it difficult for comprehension. With touch, however, users can grasp the same information faster, reducing cognitive load and improving efficiency,” explained Ruiheng.
TacPad also supports gesture-based navigation, exploration, and content selection, integrating reading and control into a seamless experience. Users can also connect multiple TacPads together to form a larger tablet for reading documents, browsing charts, viewing high-resolution graphics, and more—enabling them to "see" the digital world through touch.
Published on 11 March 2026