Using AR to build trust in citizen dialogues.
Role: UX Research, Service Design, Interaction Design
Time: Spring 2021, 5 months
Summary
The pilot project "Social Sustainability in Urban Development" was part of the Vinnova funded project Virtual Gothenburg Lab (VGL). It was led by RISE and the City of Gothenburg Social Resource Management. In the project we explored how Urban Digital Twins and Augmented Reality (AR) can be utilised to bring citizens and city officials together in dialogues about values and feelings related to urban development projects in Gothenburg.
My role in the project was interaction design, and UX Research. I was driving the user research, design exploration and concept development. The outcome was a prototype of a service in the format of an Augmented Reality (AR) app for inhabitants and city officials. It worked as an interface to the urban digital twin of Gothenburg with the aim to support inhabitants in community place-making, and city officials in communication with citizens and better understand social and cultural values in Gothenburg.
The project is acknowledged in the book "Geodesign, Urban Digital Twins and Futures" by Paul Cureton and Elliot Hartley as an example of a project that highlight the importance of bottom-up approaches and citizen-generated data for Urban Digital Twins (UDT), showcasing how citizens and city officials can contribute data to the UDT of Gothenburg via an Augmented Reality (AR) interface.
Lack of trust in urban development processes
Lack of engagement in urban development processes
Neglected values
Problem framing
Social consequences of gentrification.
One of the social sustainability issues that was highlighted early in the research was gentrification. Cultural practitioners in Gothenburg felt that their values were ignored in urban development and that their activities had to shut down to make room for more economically favourable investments. This made them lose trust towards city authorities in Gothenburg.
Exploration
Clashing needs and interests.
When discussing sketches and ideas of how the digital twin could support local values, we found that people affected by gentrification did not like the idea of digitally translating their feelings in the digital twin, with the worry that the value of the real places would be even more neglected.
At the same time, the project brief and purpose was to explore how digital representations of the natural environment could be used to benefit urban development, especially with the hope of streamlining current processes.
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Iterations
Iterating the project framing and context.
These contradictions made us rethink the project direction. Instead of using the digital twin to only make digital representations, could we use it to bring processes and dialogues closer to the physical environment and the people living in them? The framing of project moved from being "inside" the urban digital twin to instead be framed "in between" the digital twin and the physical world.
We started to brainstorm around various mixed reality ideas. The ideas that used Augmented Really (AR) were particularly interesting as AR addressed the needs of the user groups in an interesting way. It has its starting point in the real world with the purpose to augment/add value to the real world with digital elements, instead of the opposite.
Sketches and prototypes of AR ideas was used in workshops with the City of Gothenburg to get input on how such technology could be used and add value in their dialogue processes with great success.
Testing
Testing AR concepts in role-playing workshop.
We further explored the idea of using AR as the interface of a citizen dialogue. Together with people of the user group that are affected by gentrification, we tested the idea in a role-playing workshop. We acted out the citizen dialogue service and discussed the pain points and opportunities together.
Project outcome
AR as the interface between the digital and physical city.
The outcome was a prototype of a citizen dialogue service called "Augment Your City". It was in the format of an app distributed by the City of Gothenburg. It worked as an interface between the real physical Gothenburg and the digital twin of Gothenburg and enabled for citizens to add personal perspectives to the digital twin, and for city authorities to communicate with citizens and learn about place-specific values.
Location-specific interactions with citizens.
City officials could use the Augment Your City service to place questions to citizens in specific areas. The questions would be visible in AR in the physical place and digitally in the digital twin and possible for citizens to interact with.
Citizens creativity frames the dialogue.
Citizens could use Augment Your City to answer city questions, contribute with personal perspectives, telling place-specific stories and share memories or feelings about a place in their own creative way. Shared content would be visible in AR in the physical place, and virtually visible in the same place in the digital twin.
How can we use an urban digital twin to support social sustainability?
This question laid the foundation of the pilot project "Social Sustainability in Urban Development" that was part of the Vinnova funded project Virtual Gothenburg Lab (VGL).
Start brief
Acknowledgement
Project mentioned as a case study example in the book "Geodesign, Urban Digital Twins, and Futures".
We were invited to contribute a case study about this project in the book "Geodesign, Urban Digital Twins and Futures" by Paul Cureton and Elliot Hartley. Our contribution is part of a chapter in the book in which Cureton and Hartley highlight the importance of bottom-up approaches and citizen-generated data for Urban Digital Twins (UDT) to address global urbanisation goals. The pilot project "Social Sustainability in Urban Development" is featured as an example of this approach, showcasing how citizens and city officials can contribute data to the UDT of Gothenburg via an Augmented Reality (AR) interface, making the UDT a virtual layer in the physical city and serving as a platform for citizen dialogue and place-making.