Diplomprosjekt
Interaksjonsdesign
Vår 2021
Institutt for design
CityMaker explores the digital communication tools for citizen participation, in the early city planning process.
There is a broad consensus among city designers about the optimal design features of public urban spaces for people, but the residents of the urban environment have been neglected in the process. The city is not only managed by the powerful politicians, designed by the architects, but also co-owned by all people living in the city. They all have rights to express their opinions on the public space. It is time we address the needs of people so they can participate as fully as possible in society.
Citizen participation would help but is not an easy work. We still have lots of challenges in today’s society. Why don’t most people participate? What can they participate in? How can they participate?
See interactive prototypes here: https://bit.ly/3v6v2JM
This project is designed for two target groups and tests four concepts. Firstly, I started with a user-centered perspective. I explored different interactive ways for people to initiate proposals, which are simple, straight forward, and time saving. Then, the text, image and drawing as a format of data is collected from people. The second target group are the experts working for the city, how would they use the data for designing? I showcased applicable situations in use.
The design project lifts crowdsourcing data to a higher place, which would be significantly valuable for the experts in the city to evaluate and learn from. The project is explored at small, medium, and large scales, and evaluated for how applicable they are in both the short and long run.
This ideal situation won’t be realized in one or two days, but could be a very valuable thinking around how the future participatory city could be.
Xiyu Hu / xiyu.hu722@gmail.com
There is a broad consensus among city designers about the optimal design features of public urban spaces for people, but the residents of the urban environment have been neglected in the process. The city is not only managed by the powerful politicians, designed by the architects, but also co-owned by all people living in the city. They all have rights to express their opinions on the public space. It is time we address the needs of people so they can participate as fully as possible in society.
Citizen participation would help but is not an easy work. We still have lots of challenges in today’s society. Why don’t most people participate? What can they participate in? How can they participate?
See interactive prototypes here: https://bit.ly/3v6v2JM
This project is designed for two target groups and tests four concepts. Firstly, I started with a user-centered perspective. I explored different interactive ways for people to initiate proposals, which are simple, straight forward, and time saving. Then, the text, image and drawing as a format of data is collected from people. The second target group are the experts working for the city, how would they use the data for designing? I showcased applicable situations in use.
The design project lifts crowdsourcing data to a higher place, which would be significantly valuable for the experts in the city to evaluate and learn from. The project is explored at small, medium, and large scales, and evaluated for how applicable they are in both the short and long run.
This ideal situation won’t be realized in one or two days, but could be a very valuable thinking around how the future participatory city could be.
Xiyu Hu / xiyu.hu722@gmail.com
