Created with Sketch.
Switch Lab
Choose Lab

The aim of this thesis is to identify design qualities for intelligent things to perform appropriately during shared practices with citizens according to the urban culture in the city. The urban culture refers to the way that people behave in the city environment regarding the concept of citizenship and public behaviour.

In Short :
For the result, Louise Hugen proposed the design qualities that fit the vision of a democratic dialogue are identified by combining both the literature review and the outcomes of the practice based research into a synthesis. In order to evaluate and validate the design qualities, a concept of things in the city is developed that serves as a demonstrator for the theme Things as Citizens. The concept is designed in the context for air pollution and is a provider and distributor of clean air.

The following paragraphs will introduce his main findings

Context

The target group of this design project are citizens that are directly exposed to high concentrations of air pollution in the city. These are pedestrians and cyclists that spend their time near the roads. In order to see how co- performance can be created, the context of citizens and their activities in the street is analysed. This is called the city dynamics, as it is a dynamical environment that changes over time. A sketch is created of the street environment at a specific time based on what activities citizens do while being outside.

The demonstrator for things as citizens

The implemented design cues of the concept represent the design qualities model. The visibility of these design qualities in the concept is validated by a qualitative study demonstrating to Dutch citizens the interaction with a physical prototype of the concept.

The design qualities model

The result of this graduation project is the design qualities model as can be seen at the right. In order to evaluate and validate the design qualities, a concept of things in the city is developed that serves as a demonstrator for the theme Things as Citizens. The concept is designed in the context for air pollution and is a provider and distributor of clean air. The implemented design cues of the concept represent the design qualities model, which is validated by the results of a qualitative study demonstrating to Dutch citizens the interaction with a physical prototype of the concept..

The master thesis can be found in the university repository of the Delft University of Technology.