Building City Mirrors: structuring design-driven explorations of future web-based technologies for local development

This paper presents the design-driven approach applied to investigate how web-based technologies can support local development actions in urban contexts. The key elements of this approach are a design proposal, a conceptual framework working as knowledge infrastructure for the design and research explorations, and a research strategy for systematically investigating the variations of the design proposals and the different aspects of the conceptual framework. The design proposal of the City Mirrors envisions a multi-actor, multi-purpose, and multi-scale digital environment reflecting the key aspects of city development processes. The conceptual framework associated with the proposal is based on the three axes of Users’ representation, City Ecosystem and forms of technological support. The research strategy is developed across multiple case studies to analyse the practical implications of proposing alternatives to current technologies in various settings and intervening in the city context through different types of web-based technologies. Relying on these three components, the presented approach addresses the design problem of web-based technologies supporting competing goals and a wide range of applicative scenarios in its explanatory and prescriptive aspects.