Designing cyberpunk characters to make urban data more accessible for citizens

Urban data and urban information systems provide a huge amount of data every minute to inform us of the latest weather forecasts, environmental disaster, real-time traffic jams, and changes in the bus timetables. In addition, more data related directly to the urban policy- and decision-making processes are shared by different stakeholders to engage and involve citizens for urban development. However, many concerns are raised about the ways the information is actually represented, focusing on how easy data is to read and how easy it is to understand?

We share our experiences on exploring cyberpunk character to bring the environment ‘closer’ to urban public who may not immediately experience it themselves. This could be used to support them to challenge authorities on issues that can remain ‘hidden’, but which could be revealed through data. It could provide practical ways for authorities and scientists to make their data more engaging and usable by the public, thereby opening up better dialogues between stakeholders.

This presentation is based on the ongoing SciberCity project, funded by EU’s Designscapes
programme and led by LUT University, Finland.