As urban populations grow and land resources become scarcer, cities must adapt to new ways of living. However, discussions about densification often remain abstract and policy-driven, making it difficult for citizens to envision and engage with their potential futures.
[DEN]city is a public participation interface that I designed to bridge this gap, by transforming theoretical urban planning discussions into interactive, visual, and participatory experiences.
To ensure that users would be engaged, intrigued and could deeply relate the platform’s content, I developed an interactive concept inspired by city planning and our own research methods: we decided that [DEN]city will take the form of an interactive, exploratory digital map that visually represents future urban scenarios and questions. The experience is structured around 72 unique topic blocks, each occupying an intersecting “cell” on the map, housing discussions visualized as AI-generated posters, assisting in both navigating and exploring.
Each ‘block’ contains:
- A thought-provoking questionA cross between a micro topic (like 'house') and a macro field (like 'nature') - you would access a question about the relationship between homes and the enviroment in dense living scenarios.
- An AI-generated imageA visualization the scenario from a personal point of view.
- A space for public engagementallowing users to comment, and contribute their perspectives in a visual format.
User Experience Goals:
- ✅ Intuitive ExplorationUsers can freely navigate the map and discover different urban scenarios or intersect Macro fields (like transportation) and micro topics (like wellbeing)
- ✅ Engagement & Contribution Visitors are encouraged to react, comment, and even create response posters to share their own hopes, dreams, and fears about the future.
- ✅ Inclusivity & RepresentationSpecial emphasis on voices often left out of urban planning (e.g., women, children, elderly, marginalized communities).
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