Due to population growth in cities around the world, their infrastructure and services are challenged to keep up with the growing demand. At the same time the availability of new technologies and their appropriation by citizens leads to certain expectations and new challenges regarding the interaction design of interfaces and their use in the city. By designing for new experiences using the city as interface, and by better understanding how to design interfaces to the city that follow new interaction models, some of the issues in contemporary cities can potentially be addressed, alleviating pressure on ageing infrastructures and services. These are the slides for a talk I gave at the IxDA Sydney chapter meetup on 23 January 2014. The key take away are a set of design parameters for urban interaction design: scale, interaction models, users, and research & prototyping. There is not much text on the slides, but most of the slides include references to further information about the examples that are included in this slide deck.

1. Martin Tomitsch
@martintom
Designing
the city
as interface &
the interface
to the city

2. Bachelor of Design Computing
http://sydney.edu.au/architecture/programs_of_study/undergraduate/design_computing/
Master in Interaction Design and Electronic Arts
http://sydney.edu.au/architecture/programs_of_study/postgraduate/IDEA.shtm

5. Situated computing illustration by Rune Nielsen, Kollision

6. Crowded train in India | video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtpEXgtOcwY

7. design parameters
scale

8. TripStats mobile app by Tamara Chahine | Design Computing class, 2010

9. Traffic Light Pong | Still taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Ozz6_pdMI

10. Public Interactive Display at the University of Sydney | http://chai.it.usyd.edu.au/Projects/Mediawall

11. Image by Tcc8 | http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Federation_square_melbourne.jpg

12. Blinkenlight, Berlin, 2001 | Image by Thomas Fiedler

13. Solstice LAMP, Vivid Sydney 2013 | Concept sketch by Sean Bryen

14. Solstice LAMP, 2013 | Photo by Digital Pulse | http://www.amplifyfestival.com.au/solsticelamp

15. scale | interaction models

16. A. Streitz, C. Röcker, Th. Prante, R. Stenzel, D. van Alphen: Situated Interaction with Ambient
Information: Facilitating Awareness and Communication in Ubiquitous Work Environments.
In: Proceedings of HCI International 2003.

17. Vogel, D. and Balakrishnan, R.: Interactive public ambient displays: transitioning from implicit to
explicit, public to personal, interaction with multiple users. In Proceedings of UIST 2004, ACM.

18. Curious rituals http://curiousrituals.wordpress.com/

19. scale | interaction models |
users

20. Image from: http://oceancity.shownbyphotos.com/Ocean_City-dorchester-street-pictures.html

21. scale | interaction models |
users | research & prototyping

22. Urban probes | http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/UrbanProbes/

23. Solstice LAMP, 2013 | Photo by Luke Hespanhol

24. Neighbourhood Scoreboards | http://neighbourhoodscoreboards.com/

25. Neighbourhood Scoreboards | http://neighbourhoodscoreboards.com/

26. Neighbourhood Scoreboards | http://neighbourhoodscoreboards.com/

27. Neighbourhood Scoreboards | http://neighbourhoodscoreboards.com/

28. Urban interface studies

29. TripStats mobile app by Tamara Chahine | Design Computing Honours project, 2011

30. TripStats mobile app by Tamara Chahine | Design Computing Honours project, 2011

31. Tamar
Figure 3.20: User input for bus arrival
Once each submission has been recorded and sent, the list of reports is refresh
feedback for the newly added information.
TripStats mobile app by Tamara Chahine | Design Computing Honours project, 2011

32. TripStats mobile app by Tamara Chahine | Design Computing Honours project, 2011

34. Video by Tobias Ebsen | https://vimeo.com/78236205

36. LAST 7 DAYS: USER SCREEN OPTIONS
ALTERNATE DISPLAY OPTIONS
OPTION 1: Absolute consumption (consecutive screens):
▶
▶
OPTION 2: Percentage of relative change (consecutive screens):
▶
▶
▶
or
OPTION 3: Visual comparison of relative change (consecutive screens)
▶
▶
OPTION 4: Current ranking (consecutive screens)
▶
▶
▶
ANIMATED IC

37. More on this topic
City of Sound (Dan Hill) http://www.cityofsound.com/
Urban Interaction Design http://urbanixd.eu/
Media Architecture Blog http://www.mediaarchitecture.org/blog/
Smart Cities: Big Data. Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New
Utopia (Anthony Townsend)
Against GRADUATE
the Smart City (Adam Greenfield)
CERTIFICATE
INTERACTION DESIGN
AND ELECTRONIC
ARTS
FACULTY OF
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN & PLANNING
URBAN
INFORMATICS
DESIGNING THE
DIGITAL CITY

38. Image credits & sources
Martin Tomitsch
@martintom
Situated computing illustration by Rune Nielsen, Kollision
TripStats train app by Tamara Chahine
Crazy crowded train in India video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtpEXgtOcwY
Traffic Light Pong still taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Ozz6_pdMI
Federation Square: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Federation_square_melbourne.jpg
Solstice LAMP photo by Digital Pulse
Image taken from: A. Streitz, C. Röcker, Th. Prante, R. Stenzel, D. van Alphen (2003), Situated Interaction
with Ambient Information: Facilitating Awareness and Communication in Ubiquitous Work
Environments. In: Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI International
2003), June 22-27, 2003.
Image taken from: Vogel, D. and Balakrishnan, R. (2004), Interactive public ambient displays: transitioning
from implicit to explicit, public to personal, interaction with multiple users. In Proceedings of the 17th
Annual ACM Symposium on User interface Software and Technology (Santa Fe, NM, USA, October
24 – 27, 2004). UIST ’04. ACM, New York, NY, 137-146.
Curious rituals http://curiousrituals.wordpress.com/
City people from: http://oceancity.shownbyphotos.com/Ocean_City-dorchester-street-pictures.html