Changing life in urban areas creates challenges for people who move and also for long-term inhabitants, who have to orientate themselves in new or changing environments. ICT has the potential to support people in orientating in urban neighborhoods as well as to foster participation when it comes to shaping future life in cities. We present results from a workshop on ICT in urban areas, which show the potential to connect interactive objects in public environments and to draw from community knowledge in order to support individual people in exploring their neighborhoods. In a use case we show how orientation help can be created in accordance to each person’s comfort zone within the neighborhood. We conclude discussing further challenges in HCI research with focus on urban areas.     «

Changing life in urban areas creates challenges for people who move and also for long-term inhabitants, who have to orientate themselves in new or changing environments. ICT has the potential to support people in orientating in urban neighborhoods as well as to foster participation when it comes to shaping future life in cities. We present results from a workshop on ICT in urban areas, which show the potential to connect interactive objects in public environments and to draw from community knowl...     »