Edinburgh Napier University

  UrbanIxD (urban interaction design) is a 2 year European project that will build a research network around the domain of data-rich urban environments, focusing on human activities, experiences and behaviours.

A transformation is taking place in how our cities work. Cites are being laced with sensors and mobile technologies that are generating a myriad of urban informatics experiences. A digital landscape overlays our physical world and is expanding to offer ever-richer experiences. In the cities of the future, computing isn’t just with us; it surrounds us, and it uses the context of our environment to empower us in more natural, yet powerful ways.

By employing a Critical Design methodology the UrbanIxD project will provide an opportunity to re-think what intelligent connected communities of the future might actually look like. It will question the premise of the smart city and will develop a community of researchers with a shared commitment to the foregrounding of the human experience in the field of Urban Interaction Design.

The project ran a successful summer school in Split, Croatia in 2013 and organised a Symposium and Exhibition in Venice in 2014. The UrbanIxD exhibition has been shown in Croatia, Denmark & Italy. In 2015 it will be exhibited in Slovenia, Croatia and the UK.

This project was funded by the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme - Grant Agreement No. 323687