Summary
Depending on where you are in the world, there are several reasons why civic design has become a valuable methodology for governments. Within the scope of our work in Istanbul, We will talk about increasing the capacity of institutions producing and providing public services to create innovative services, system design, and adapting civic design models to innovative service development processes for local governments in developing countries.
Key Insights
-
•
Henry Prost's urban plan for Istanbul, while preserving historical sites, imposed heavy, interventionist changes that disrupted the city's social fabric.
-
•
Istanbul's population growth and sociological shifts since the 1980s created new urban challenges that traditional city planning has struggled to address.
-
•
Governance in Istanbul is highly fragmented, with 39 districts each influenced by different political parties, complicating unified civic design efforts.
-
•
Public participation in Istanbul's urban design projects is limited, often restricted to selected stakeholders rather than inclusive community engagement.
-
•
Existing public innovation practices focus too much on complaint collection instead of structured user research and value creation.
-
•
Typical idea workshops and urban design competitions tend to prioritize expert imagination over actual citizen needs and involvement.
-
•
The speakers advocate for a human-centered, holistic civic design methodology that involves students and non-political groups as active participants.
-
•
Iterative testing with lead users and low to high fidelity prototyping is essential to creating sustainable and well-accepted public services.
-
•
Traffic congestion, partly caused by private vehicle overuse and inadequate parking, is a pressing urban problem targeted by the new Park and Ride project.
-
•
Institutional challenges such as budget constraints, lack of qualified staff, and ideological barriers hinder implementation of innovative civic design solutions.
Notable Quotes
"Finding the balance between transformation and preservation is a delicate issue in Istanbul."
"Prost's master plan imposed a heavy interventionist burden on the historical structure of the city."
"Some old fashioned solutions bring new problems for Istanbul."
"Unmanaged challenges reduce the quality of life in society."
"Political parties at the provincial level have their own mandates, which complicates unified service design."
"Public participation started being considered only in the last 10 years in Istanbul."
"Urban design competitions are declared public, but only expert architects or designers can participate."
"Current projects mostly focus on collecting complaints rather than understanding the state."
"We want to develop a civic design methodology compatible with Istanbul’s current conditions."
"Testing and implementation processes require sustainable, acceptable approaches using prototype iterations and user feedback."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
















More Videos

"Students cannot be taught what they need to know; they can only be coached to absorb it through demonstration."
Yoel SumitroActions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
March 9, 2022

"Burnout exists because we made rest a reward rather than a right."
Zariah CameronReDesigning Wellbeing for Equitable Care in the Workplace
September 23, 2024

"Forrester found that design thinking teams move twice as fast from idea to market because they’re closer to their users."
Doug PowellDesignOps and the Next Frontier: Leading Through Unpredictable Change
September 11, 2025

"Creating a roadmap built enough space to make meaningful design changes for developers to implement."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024

"I helped a company save 12 million dollars by not investing in an iris scanner in a one-week project."
Mike OrenWhy Pharmaceutical's Research Model Should Replace Design Thinking
March 28, 2023

"My job is to make the head of design look super good."
Jacqui FreyScale is Social Work
March 19, 2020

"Trust takes time, hard work, and consistency to build, especially in times of change when time is a luxury we don't have."
Kim Holt Emma Wylds Pearl Koppenhaver Maisee XiongA Salesforce Panel Discussion on Values-Driven DesignOps
September 8, 2022

"One in four people in the United States have a disability."
Samuel ProulxFrom Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins
September 10, 2025

"We wanted to be aware of extraversion, so words like energy were changed to initiative to not favor personality types."
Laine Riley ProkayHow DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
September 30, 2021