"With a large part of the built environment privately owned in many European cities, citizen engagement is crucial for the success of sustainability initiatives in urban areas. The use of digital platforms and tools can support this process, given their potential to enable remote participation, reach a large number of citizens, and enhance governance transparency. However, many digital platforms for citizen engagement in sustainability action remain underutilised.

This study adopts a user-centric perspective to analyse the interface design of over ten digital platforms and identify design elements that hinder or foster engagement. Our analysis highlights four main interface issues: disconnection between scientific data and personal experience, complex navigation, information overload, and limited opportunities for action.

To overcome these limitations, we developed a set of design guidelines addressing four themes: Awareness and framing, Individual and collective action, Effective use of data, and Navigation and visuals. We implemented these guidelines in two prototypes, focusing on heat waves and biodiversity loss in urban areas. The prototypes were tested in workshop settings with positive feedback from participants, corroborating the importance of citizen-centric interface design in ensuring effective citizen engagement."@en

Recent interest in biodiversity to combat climate crises led governments to use data platforms and sensing tools to monitor, conserve and increase city biodiversity. Given that most of these tools are designed for expert users and most city space is privately owned, there is a growing need for urban living labs (ULLs) approaches that combine community co-design with HCI for biodiversity. This paper develops and explores the BULL (Biodiversity Urban Living Lab) approach, building on the existing City Commons HCI framework, using research-through-design and action research methods. A BULL approach should not only engage citizens but also lead to opportunities for individual and collective action towards biodiversity as perceived common. Next to this, ecological and technological entities as non-human actors need to be involved in community-based co-creation in BULLs. The BULL approach provides a process and specific tools for multi-stakeholder groups, including more-than-human ones, to experiment with opportunities for more biodiversity in a local community, resulting in individual and collective action.

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Beelden van Applied Design Research. Onderzoekers bestuderen de wereld zoals die is. Ontwerpers willen de wereld veranderen. Applied design research is een vorm van praktijkgericht onderzoek waarin beide benaderingen worden geïntegreerd, om nieuwe kennis op te doen én om praktische oplossingen te ontwikkelen. Maar hoe doe je dat, aangezien ontwerpen en onderzoeken sterk verschillen en beantwoorden aan verschillende standaarden? Dit boek is geen receptenboek, maar het biedt wel een kijkje in de keuken van 22 lectoren aan diverse hogescholen. Ze passen applied design research toe op diverse gebieden, variërend van de gezondheidszorg tot aan retail. Elke bijdrage biedt een ander perspectief en demonstreert dat met illustratieve voorbeelden. Géén geeft een volledige uitleg, maar samen bieden ze een rijk beeld van wat applied design research is, hoe het toe te passen en wat je ervan kunt verwachten.@en