Interactive design for responsive environments: placing people at the center of the design process

Abstract

Public   space   is   the   meeting   point   where communities blend and mingle and where interaction,  exchange  and  communication take place. An healthy public space is the celebration of diversity  and  the  paradigm  of  democracy, enabling  all  sorts  of  expressions,  uses  and  cultural  manifestations.  In  contemporary  societies  public  space  has  become  a  medium,  a  tool,  an  enabler,  a  place  where  everybody  should  feel  included  and  have  the  possibility  of  personalizing,   reclaiming   and   conquering it. At  the  same  time,  public  space  is  the  best  platform  for  designers  to  think  about the future of cities. It is the ideal framework for testing and prototyping new  ideas  and  possibilities,  and  creating  future  scenarios  that  can  then  be  shared, discussed, and debated. Public space  should  be  the  place  where  individual  and  societal  freedom  is  most  represented and by rethinking and reshaping it, designers are affecting people’s present and future lives.