APPS FOR CIVIC INNOVATION
Seminar Faculty: Carles Ferreiro & Steffen Becker

This Seminar will focus on the roles and challenges of mobile apps as a tool for transforming the urban living experience for residents, visitors, organizations and public administration. Two main aspects will be studied in detail: 1. challenges of app usage and consumption (trends, constraints and opportunities) and 2. app conceptualization and development (use-centred value proposition, technology, user experience & design and growth and sustainability models).

Empowering citizens to create the next smart cities

While relying on state of the art platforms for urban app discovery and development and comparative experience in cities around the world, the seminar will be eminently hands-on, allowing students to develop two main goals.

a) To gain insight on app usage, students will explore their lives to better understand how apps are present and absent of the multi-faceted city life and the impact that these have on solving their recurrent or occasional challenges. Different personas and scenarios will be explored to relate them to actual apps and their intended user journey.

Understanding urban life and citizen needs

b) The main seminar project will be focused on creating a concept for app development based on a set of given problem statements faced by citizens identified in phase a of the seminar. Students will work in groups to conceptualize, and give shape to the app in all aspects save actual technology development. Using design techniques for the development of value proposition, user experience and business models, the seminar will result in thoroughly defined urban app concepts.

Design tools for app development