Should we Trust Engineers to Design Infrastructure?

Powerful Examples of Forgetting the End-user Abound

The Myki system in Melbourne, which was originally an innovative move to create a paperless ticketing system, was not user-friendly, particularly for tourists. The City eventually reverted to making travel within the CBD (Central Business District) free on the trams.

In the United States, where touch screens and keypads control voter results, a recount declared George W Bush the winner of the Florida vote and presidency in 2000 by 537 votes. However, it was estimated that four to six million ballots were never cast or recorded – a third of which were due to mechanical and technical failures with clogged punch holes on the ballots, a piece of electronic voting that is lower on the technological scale (Selker). Leaving the design of digital infrastructure, like electronic voting, to software engineers without thinking of the needs of the people who will use those systems will likely always result in failure, as was the case with the US election (and the recent Australian census).

Is there a Different Way?

Co-designing these projects in conjunction with those who use them might well have resulted in better outcomes first time round. We simply can’t afford our cities and infrastructure to be wonders of engineering that not many people engage with or relate to.

In a recent study, between 48-80 percent of city dwellers across seven countries claimed they wanted to make an active contribution to society. And Zef Hemel, Deputy Director of the City of Amsterdam Planning Department, says they rightfully should: “Today, it is citizens themselves who are the experts. They are well educated, use ICT every day, and know their own environment inside out. We therefore have everything to gain by involving them in our thinking about the city of the future and benefiting from this ‘collective brain’.”

But how?

Zef adopted the ‘WikiCity’ model for Amsterdam city – an open planning concept that incorporates the opinions and initiatives of its residents for future city improvements. Taking its cue from Wikipedia, the model asserts the advantage of multiple stakeholder contributions, by offering a platform for every individual to envision and collectively shape their city.

Similarly, architect and entrepreneur Ekim Tan developed ‘Play the City’ – a city design and research game that brings investors, developers, architects and, of course, citizens together under the same banner of community design. Tan believes that the critical intellectual does not always grasp the sensitivities of members of society. These fun, hands-on games often involve 3D models in which players can dialogue throughout the constructive phase until reaching a happy and informed consensus. With home carers and professionals, students and local politicians standing around the same city model, equally invited to the table, it’s proven an effective way to generate full-bodied representation and resolve future conflict.

Beyond community design, our cities also face mounting challenges into the future – congestion, urbanisation and pollution. An engineer-centred approach to solving these is efficient, but sterile. A human-centred approach is critical if we want our cities to be liveable. We have everything to gain from harnessing the power of collective design.

Today’s world is increasingly horizontal, with blurred edges between former categories of professionalism and expertise. We need to recognise that local and lived expertise is just as critical as technical expertise. The idea of inviting the community to co-create its own collective space is not a pie-in-the-sky concept; it is a direct response to a fundamental shift in society. To paraphrase Zef Hemel, our society can only benefit from working with our ‘collective brain’.