A design framework for city-wide open data displays with connected bikes

Abstract

Many cities are embracing ICT and other technological innovations as a development strategy. Governments gather and distribute open data as they see sharing data as a responsibility of a transparent government. However, the representation of this data is typically hard to understand and difficult to use. The main problem that open data systems pose to municipalities is that citizens do not see and use the open data that is gathered and provided. This project aims to tackle this problem by making citizens aware of aspects of their environment that are invisible to them and does so by communicating open data using connected bikes.
Public bikes are viewed as a design opportunity for use as data providers to citizens for several reasons. They are located throughout the city, so will be viewed in the entire city. Because of their movement, the bikes serve as an interesting communicator of location-based data. The bike can show data about the environment of the location in which it is currently situated. Public bikes have become more visible in the Dutch urban landscape and are increasingly present in, especially, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. This project is based in the city Rotterdam, more specifically the district Delfshaven.
The design space for this subject was explored through three sections:
data, bike interface and social perception. Each of the three sections was explored individually. The sections were explored through literature research, benchmarking on other projects, quick prototyping and small user tests. Based on this research, several parameters were presented for consideration in a final design.
Through design explorations, interdependencies between the presented parameters were determined. A creative session with design students was held where the use of the design space and the interdependencies between the sections as a design tool was tested. Based on the feedback of the creative session, a design tool for designing city-wide open data displays with connected bikes was created. The design tool was evaluated by the creation of three design examples.
Together, the design space and tool form a design framework that will provide guidance to designers that will tackle this subject in the future. The created design examples give an impression of the possibilities when designing for this subject.
From here, the design framework should be completed further by mapping and describing financial and technical feasibility. Furthermore, the design tool should be further evaluated by other designers. Lastly, as this project was conceived of as an exploratory one, the goal was not the thorough testing and subsequent realisation of one concept. Therefore, the actual effects that such a design could have in a neighbourhood are still unknown and should be explored further.