Exploring the design space of interactive urban environments: triggering physical activity through embedded technology

Promoting healthy lifestyles is an essential endeavor for public health. The design of active urban environments can be an effective medium to nudge people into moving. With technology increasingly integrated into our daily lives, designers have access to more data than ever. In this pictorial, we explore the design space of interActive environments (contraction of ‘interactive’ and ‘active’); places designed to increase the physical activity of users or passers-by through the use of interactive technology. Through sketches, a benchmark of existing concepts and an analysis of designed artefacts, we map the different intervention levels, interaction modalities, behavior change strategies and technological opportunities to design such interActive environments. With this work, we invite the community to consider how digital technology can help understand and shape human behavior in urban environments, and provide inspiration to designers and practitioners.