Finding Places: HCI Platform for Public Participation in Refugees’ Accommodation Process

Abstract

This paper describes the conception, development and deployment of a novel HCI system for public participation and decisionmaking. This system was applied for the process of allocating refugee accommodation in the City of Hamburg within the FindingPlaces project (FP) in 2016. The CityScope (CS) -a rapid prototyping platform for urban planning and decision-making -offered a technical solution which was complemented by a workshop process to facilitate effective interaction of multiple participants and stakeholder groups. This paper presents the origins of CS and the evolution of the tangible user interface approach to urban planning and public participation. It further outlines technical features of the system, including custom hardware and software in use, utilization in real-time as well as technical constraints and limitations. Special focus is on the adaptation of the CS technology to the specific demands of Hamburg´s FP project, whose procedures, processes, and results are reflected. The final section analyzes success factors as well as shortcomings of the approach, and indicates further R&D as well as application scenarios for the CS.

Mobile Augmented Reality Client as a UX Method for Living Lab's User Involvement Tool

“…Application areas for AR are numerous spanning from games such as Pokémon GO [29] to applications for citizen participation [12,25].…”

“…CityScope [25] is a tangible user interface (TUI) platform adaptable to different use cases, such as Hamburg's (Germany) refugee challenge, which adds to the discussion about designing MAR systems for user involvement. The system's basic idea is to display geographic information in a table for both experts and the public to use it to tackle various societal problems.…”

“…It was also designed to have tangible objects for interaction, which represented, for example, buildings and building elements. CityScope is used in the Andorra Living Lab project to present geographical information in AR [25].…”

“…In the context of the refugee crisis, CityScope [25] was used to enable both experts and the public to find suitable locations to accommodate refugees. The system was later evaluated through SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).…”

“…CityScope [25], Pace of the City [12] and KioskAR [33] highlight how MAR applications are a part of a larger system aiming for better smart city infrastructure and citizen or student involvement. In living labs, the aim is not only to provide a platform for citizen involvement but also to facilitate user involvement when developing new services or products [5].…”