Designing Human-Machine Interactions in the Automated City: Methodologies, Considerations, Principles

Technological progress paves the way to ever-increasing opportunities for automating city services. This spans from already existing concepts, such as automated shuttles at airports, to more speculative applications, such as fully autonomous delivery robots. As these services are being automated, it is critical that this process is underpinned by a human-centred perspective. This chapter provides a framework for future research and practice in this emerging domain. It draws on research from the field of human-computer interaction and introduces a number of methodologies that can be used to structure the process of designing interactions between people and automated urban applications. Based on research case studies, the chapter discusses specific elements that need to be considered when designing human-machine interactions in an urban environment. The chapter further proposes a model for designing automated urban applications and a set of principles to guide their prototyping and deployment.