Welcome to the UrbanIxD SIG :: Designing Human Interactions in the Networked City

CHI2013 ParisMichael SmythCentre for Interaction DesignEdinburgh Napier University, UK@michael_smyth

The UrbanIxD project particularly concerns the Research of, and Design for, the point of contact between people and urban technologies.

We are building a network of researchers working on urban technologies from the human perspective.

We have partners in UK, Italy, Denmark, Croatia

What is this Special Interest Group all about?

To raise interest in the emergent topic of Urban Interaction Design.

To provide a forum for interested researchers to explore key research themes and trends.

To build a community of practice, exchange ideas and to identify possible collaborators.

To plan for the future ... as the future is now.

Background to the field of Urban Interaction Design

UN Habitat report on populations moving to

cities - just over 50% of the world's population now live in cities.

In Europe the figure is over 70% Europe is a dense continent and the major lived experience of people in Europe is an urban one

Europe is the region with the highest

Internet penetration rate in the world (75%),

followed by the Americas (61%).

In 2011, more than 70% of European households had access to the Internet at home.

But this is an average - The regional differences in Internet access within the EU were large, from

26% of some areas of Bulgaria, to 95% or more in areas of the Netherlands.

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

William Gibson, The Economist, 2003 

The city is a mesh of heterogenous networks. Not just official governmental, institutional and commercial levels but also as a mesh of hybrid human networks.

The vision of Ubicomp is one of seamless interfaces, connecting into invisible, distributed, pervasive and ubiquitous computing

In 2011 there were 741 million mobile

phone subscriptions in Europe. That's 1.2 SIM cards per person. 

The average age of first phone ownership is

7 years old.

Interactions create data, often personal data relating to individuals, and if our interactions are "seamless" this raises serious questions around the visibility of what happens to that data. Issues of trust, privacy, ownership and control.

Smart Cities projects tend to take a Big Picture view of systems, considering technology from an infrastructural perspective - the bird's eye view.

The UrbanIxD project is looking at this domain from the ground up. From the view of the citizen connecting and interfacing with these technology layers.

Urban informatics is the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures. 

Foth, Choi, & Satchell, 2011

The UrbanIxD project is working towards the production of a research manifesto of future research directions.

We will do this by producing an Exhibition, using Critical design as a methodology to present some "what if" scenarios. 

To act as a catalyst for debate, and provoke reactions to how this domain could or should develop.

We are running a Summer School in Split, Croatia in August, 2013.

Questions for the Groups

How will digital technologies change the urban environment in the next 10 years?

What will be the challenges for Interaction Design/HCI?

What should this community do next?