DIGITAL & STRATEGIC
UX DESIGN PRACTICE
UX FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Working Towards the Streets of the Future
Putting forward human-centred technology and design concepts that make city streets more comfortable, efficient, and safe
Sidewalk Labs (and Colas) were awarded an assignment for planning concept for Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront. Digital Studio has since served as an ongoing creative contributor and strategic advisor and was asked to support Sidewalk Labs’ efforts to bring urban street innovations to market by developing a “Street Kit of Parts” (SKoP) manual.
Date
Location
Digital Studio produced in collaboration with Sidewalk Labs the “Street Kit of Parts” (SKoP); a catalogue of modular, replicable urban street innovations, based on a vision of urban streets as an enhanced public realm and part of an innovative mobility system. Providing the expertise in human-centred design, Digital Studio developed eight high-level design concepts for city streets that showcase the opportunities technology can unlock when integrated digitally, physically and experientially into the habitual interactions of city dwellers with their streets and with each other.
“Thank you to the Arup team for the way you lead the sessions, and the flexibility to incorporate different ways of working into the process.”
CLIENT SENTIMENT AT SWL
Emerging technologies and urban trends are creating new pressures for city streets to adapt and opportunities for new innovations. Against this backdrop, Digital Studio was commissioned to guide Side Labs through a 3-month design research process with the aim to produce a Street Kit of Parts (SKoP) manual that serves as a blueprint for further. The team set out to define use cases that validate existing technological assumptions, identify dependencies, and generate new ideas. The design process resulted in the development of 8 high-level concepts providing solutions to challenges such as dangerous double-parking, crammed sidewalks, or right-turn conflicts. The concepts serve as a reference for Sidewalk Labs in design-driven approaches as well as a basis to move onto prototyping and user-testing.
SKoP attempts to bring clarity about who exercises agency over street innovations, and how: who owns, who operates, who regulates, and who pays. This is a starting point for thinking about their capital and operational financing--about how these concepts can become financially as well as technologically feasible. Therefore, Digital Studio proposed community engagement methods to help build relationships with local communities and leaders.
Key Services provided:
- Reframing of desired outcomes, and clarity of use cases
- Design and facilitation of design sprints
- Human-centred technology and design concept development
- A reference for Sidewalk Labs in design-driven approaches
- An approach we can deploy on other projects