Stadtplanung – A tabletop interface for collaborative urban planning
Stadtplanung (Urban Planning) is a concept for a tabletop interface to be used during discussions regarding urban planning processes.
Urban planning processes require discussion-intensive exchanges of ideas and opinions as well as the coordination of many departments at the municipal administration level. When the department representatives and planners involved must be brought together, interactive extensions of digital maps offer many advantages over static maps including the fact that operations such as moving around and zooming in and out facilitate alternating among map details. In addition, information can be faded in or out for ease of understanding.
Stadtplanung focuses on supporting teamwork. This is why its functions have been outsourced to tangible user elements in forms suggestive of their usage. These elements can be placed freely and enable users to add input simultaneously. Using the land development plan of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd as an example, the interactive prototype illustrates Stadtplanung ’s options for interaction.
