Parallel City - An Interactive, Gamified Platform for Urban Exploration

This thesis explores the interactions between city experts and citizens by providing integrated live spatial information for citizens and online planning communication experiences between experts and laymen. Instead of costly public participation, it is better to provide citizens with a convenient and lively city information platform by integrating spatiotemporal everyday life information to promote citizens to participate in urban construction actively and subconsciously. In this context, this thesis focuses on exploring how urban planners can involve the public in planning by using gamification, such as exploration, rewards, and quests. After investigating the current state of the art of the use of gamification in urban planning, a participation platform was conceived, implemented in part and user-tested with seven participants. The results indicate that the platform has largely fulfilled the expectations for enhancing the experience and interest of public participation in planning communication.