We have established a Design Ethnographic Urban Living Lab approach that works as both a central physical (but moving) hub and a remote, virtual hub for working with different participants, urban environments, stakeholders and focus points in the project. The living lab approach allows us to integrate ethnography and co-design activities in fluid ways. It opens up a space for shifting between modes of research – interviews, diaries, digital and visual platforms, and collaborative spaces where participants, researchers and stakeholders engage in ongoing analysis, discussion and design activities exploring new forms of mobility for their local environments. As such, our design ethnography goes beyond just working with participants – it also involves joining up their experiences with the worlds of the other stakeholders in technological, infrastructural, and city futures. Design ethnography brings these diverse worlds together through a focus on the problematic of the experiences, imaginations and futures of real people who live out complex and contingent lives.
