Designing in our capital city
The Design and UX Department is the multidisciplinary design team of the Municipality of Amsterdam. Our team has various expertises; user research, UX design, service design, and systemic design with one shared approach: listening! Amsterdam is a city of many voices: residents, visitors, and people who work there, all moving through a large, rapidly changing city. The issues we work on are rarely simple. They are diverse design questions and wicked problems: from trash cans to STI tests, from playgrounds to the Red Light District. What they have in common is that they are rarely solved with a quick fix.
Listening as a starting point
Our way of working always starts with a conversation. Not statistics or assumptions, but truly listening to the people a project is meant for. Time and again, we see that people, despite their differences, share many underlying needs: feeling safe, feeling like they belong, being seen. These needs only become visible when you give people the space to tell their whole story. This not only makes people feel heard, but also allows us to work toward the best-fitting solutions. For Dutch Design Week, we're highlighting a few of these projects, such as livability in the Red Light District, experience of public space, and STI testing among young people.
We invite you to come and listen for yourself. Step into a space and hear the voices of Amsterdam: real statements from real people. Discover the needs that connect us all, however different we may be.
Curious? Come by!
Have a chat with our designers at our stand. Alongside the featured projects, we're bringing even more showcases. We're happy to tell you more about these projects, as well as about the challenges of designing for a large municipality, our approach & methods, and our favorite tools. You'll find us at Foundation We Are.
