Designing Digital Urban Interactions. Industry Landscape and Market Analysis

GRUPPO TELECOM ITALIA

Designing Digital Urban InteractionsIndustry Landscape and Market Analysis

International Conference e-Society 2015

Madeira, Portugal, 14-16 March 2015

Gianluca Zaffiro, Future Centre

Index

Urbanization phenomena and emergence of Smart Cities

Urban Interaction Design: a method to innovate Smart City solutions

Results from the online survey: issues, benefits and opportunities

Critical Design and risks for technology overshoot

Conclusions and next steps

Index






4

Urbanization: a question of issues and opportunities

Designing Digital Urban Interactions


The city is

the focal

point of

policy and

economic

strategy for

the new

millennium

Urbanization

Environment

Economic

&

Social impact

from > 7 BLN people in 2014

to nearly 10 BLN in 2050

by 2050 cities will host 2/3 of

the global population

cities account for

75% of CO2 global emissions

cities account for

75% of global energy use

& generate 80% of global GDP

Source: http://newclimateeconomy.report/cities/

Population

http://newclimateeconomy.report/cities/

5

The Smart City holistic conceptualization

Focus on People, Technology, Economy, Living, Resources and Governance



We believe a city to be smart

when investments

in human and social capital

and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT)

communication infrastructure

fuel sustainable economic growth

and a high quality of life,

with a wise management of natural resources,

through participatory governance

[Andrea Caragliu et al., 2009]

SMART

LIVING

(quality of

life)

SMART

ENVIRONMENT

(natural

resources)

SMART

MOBILITY

(transports

& ICT)

SMART

PEOPLE

(human & social

capital)

SMART

ECONOMY

(competitive-

ness)

SMART

GOVERNANCE

(participation)

[Smart cities report of TU Wien, Lubian Univ., TU Delft 2007]

6

Global trends for Smart Cities projects and implementations



EuropeCounted with the largest number of smart cities last year

Focus on energy and entrepreneurship & human capital policies

Asia-

Pacific

Middle East-

Africa

Smart city from scratch: new infrastructures instead of retrofitting

Expected to count the highest number of Smart cities by 2025

North

America

Focus on a single functional area, i.e. mobility and transport

Structured programmes from big industrial players (IBM, Cisco & Siemens)

[Smart Cities Report. HIS Technology, May 2014 ]

[Smart Cities Market, MarketsandMarkets, May 2014]

88 Smart Cities all over the world by 2025, up from 21 in 2013 that are deploying

or piloting the integration of ICT solutions across 3+ functional areas

7

Telecom Italia works to be a strategic partner for Smart Cities

Applications

Networks

Connected City Multi-Utility Network Public lighting

HeatingWater

Waste

Network Provider Domain

Other Provider DomainV

ert

ica

l

Ap

p

Ve

rtic

al

Ap

p

Vert

ical

Ap

p

Capillary Network

Carrier Network

M2M & IoT management

Cit

y C

on

tro

l

Ro

om



8

Most recent Telecom Italia’s Smart City projects

URBeLOG



Integrated Smart City

information system including

capillary networks for M2M

(EU FP7 project)

Telematics platform for

Urban logistics processes

(MIUR project)

Street Furniture for

access to public services

(MIUR project)Non-profit Association

for Smart Home and

demand site management

Digital Experience for

EXPO 2015

Index






10

The complexity of the Urban context

Can Interaction Design mediate between people, places and technology?



Question

“Technology is the

answer.

But what is the

question?”

“We don't make cities in

order to make buildings

and infrastructure

but to come together,

create wealth, culture,

more people."

“The most profound

technologies are those

that disappear.

They weave themselves

in the fabric of everyday

life until they are

indistinguishable from it.”

Technology People

[Cedric Price, Architect] [Mark Weiser,

Computer Scientist]

[Dan Hill, CEO]

Design

“Design is the difference

between

having a digital project

in a lab

or out in the real world.”

[Lord Inglewood,

House of Lords, UK]

11

Interaction Design (IxD) makes smartness happen

The thermostat example



simplicity comes out of a

stylish designed knob

where complex functions

are moved to mobile app

sensorized with infrared to

perceive human presence and an

light-up/dim or change temperature

machine learning to adjust

heating behavior from earlier

temperature changes

green impact is not only at

home level but at city one

(when largely adopted)

coaching to use less

energy by gamification

NEST is the evolution of a dumb thermostat resulting by the combination of new

techs i.e. IoT, sensors, always-on, AI, data and design around the human user

12

UrbanIXD main statements and pillars

Art, Technology and Society



Source http://issuu.com/urbanixd/docs/urbanixd_manifesto/1

SOCIETY

TECHART

UrbanIxD

INTERACTION

Criterias

#01

#02

human centred approach for

the making of liveable cities

understanding problems

rather than solving problems

Research

challenges

#01

#02

Quantified Self

Negotiation of Space

#03 Experiencing the Other

Contribution to

#01

#02

civic engagement, citizen participation

digitally mediated resource–sharing

systems (and business models)

#03opportunities in shared spaces

and spaces for sharing

#04humanisation of data rather than

datified human (actionable data)

Assumptions #01digital techs, media, materials which shape/

are shaped by the urban public space

http://issuu.com/urbanixd/docs/urbanixd_manifesto/1

Index






14

Results from conducting a survey on the Urban IxD potential



The total number of respondents is 122, mainly based in EU and USA,

with a Industry or Academic/Research profile

15

Issues ranked with indication of the respondent’s affiliation



1

7

1

11

10

7

7

18

15

16

20

30

8

6

12

8

12

17

18

10

15

14

23

24

Management and assurance of data quality

Lack of dynamic urban spaces that can self-organiseand serve multiple purposes

Funds to finance innovation

Lack of urban spaces designed to improvethe life quality of the citizens

User readiness: smart requires also a shift of thinking,not only technology

Understand and stimulate synergy betweensocial sciences, people and technology

Strategic vision of decision makers: political leadershipwithin a city can limit or spur innovation

Create environment for enabling social interactionsin order to reinvent the living together

Urban transportation and mobility

Breaking the digital divide, improving accessibilityand quality of connectivity

Energy consumption, ecological impactand environmental sustainability

Informing, empowering and engaging citizensin the public decision making

# of mentions

Industry Academic and research

INDUSTRY: focus on the

key factors to support an

innovation project

ACADEMIC &

RESEARCH: focus on the

issues to be solved

through innovation in the

Smart city and Urban IxD

contexts

16

Which areas could benefit the most from IxD?

The statements were analyzed and clustered into categories



INDUSTRY SCENE ACADEMIC AND

RESEARCH FIELD

Mobility and

transportation

62Productio

n and

retail

7

Health and

wellness

23

Tourism

10

Education,

culture and art

41

Energy

25

Institutional

services

12

Entertainmen

t and social

interaction

23

Smart

governance:

civic

information and

consultation 40

Urban planning

and Intelligent

Buildings

40

Safety

and

security

11

Environmental,

land use,

waste

management

32

Top areas:

► Mobility and transport

► Education, culture and art

► Smart governance and Urban

planning and intelligent building

17

Best cases vs issues by category: where are the opportunities?



Overaddressed area: MOBILITYUnbalanced issues: GOVERNANCE, LIVING,

ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY and ECONOMY

Need for more solutions! Saturation of the market?

25%

18%

12% 11%

4%

9% 10%

7%

13%14%

6%

9%

1%

32%

19%

7%

Governance Living Enviromental Technology Economy Mobility Urban designand planning

People

% Issues % examples

URBAN DESIGN &

PLANNING has several

pilots and ideas but few

presently applied

18

A platform to generate participatory processes of people in the cities. Connecting data, people and

knowledge, the objective is to serve as a node for building productive and open indicators, and

distributed tools, and thereafter the collective construction of the city for its own inhabitants

It’s based on geolocation, Internet and free open hardware and software for data collection and sharing

and the production of objects using 3D printers

the 'Ambient Board' measures air quality, light intensity, temperature, noise, and humidity levels

A best case for Urban Interaction Design

The Smart Citizen Project



Video: https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/513937/video-246624-h264_high.mp4

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/513937/video-246624-h264_high.mp4

Index






20

Distopic scenarious can be useful to identify people needs. In our project we explored a few of

these scenarious and created a travelling exhibition

Urban IxD critical design approach

Critical designers do not design solutions but qualify questions



Coordination of Urban Busy Areas Ministry of MisInformation

Negotiation of

public space

within the city, or

data redefinition

of physical space

(mis)data as a

tool to re-

empower citizen

to address issues

of public interest

Index






22

► Urbanization is happening and cities are the economic, social, environmental nexus

► Smartness in the urban context is a consequence of the need of optimizing,

ameliorating, saving resources and the technological push

► Smart cities are becoming a reality worldwide but the citizen is not yet at the centre of

the process and cities are not built for themselves

► Telecom Italia is part of the innovation process here and runs many research activities in

several fields: energy, smart street furniture, IoT, M2M …

► The complexity of urban innovation requires a holistic approach: urban interaction

design is a tool towards this goal

► An evolution in the areas of impact of the Smart city innovation can be envisioned, moving

from the classical silos of mobility and energy into the more transversal fields, and

specifically of governance and living

► Designing Future Cities requires to critically reflect on a possible technology overshoot

as the distance between the answer (solution) and the question (need) can be far too long

Conclusions

The smart way to the Smart Cities of the Future



23

Next steps

► Keeping and extending the community on UrbanIxD.eu

► Organize more UrbanIxD exhibitions around Europe:

Ljubljana and Zagreb to be confirmed soon in 2015, by Split University

► New research projects funded:

OrganiCity.eu Co-creating smart cities of the future. Leaded by Aahrus

University (Denmark)

► Seeking for new opportunities of collaboration in research projects

Horizon2020

…



24

Thank you!

[email protected] @goriffaz

