Future Mobility Design Lab - UC Digital Futures

Imagine a future where cities are designed for people and not cars; where exciting new trends and technologies such as autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and a shared economy, drastically shift the urban fabric around social development and accessibility for everyone; where mobility systems are designed around parks, libraries, museums, and community initiatives. Transportation is about more than going from A to B, it’s about the how and why, focusing on meaningful and enriching experiences while in motion.
Our cities have immense untapped potential, and here at the FMD Lab we believe in a new empathic approach focused on human-centered research and employing cutting edge prototyping and simulating methods to understand the real needs of people and the applications of emerging technologies to create future interventions for cities and how we move around them.
We specialize in two human-centered research approaches:
1) Quantitative methods enabling an in-depth understanding of macro factors, including markets, trends, technologies, demographics, economics, and politics.
2) Qualitative methods, such as co-creation, interviews, surveys, and workshops, facilitate a nuanced understanding of individual needs. Additionally, the lab engages in future scenario creation, identifying opportunity areas and offering recommendations based on the scope of each project.
The FMD Lab also excels in multi-level prototyping, leveraging proprietary methods and emerging tools like virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, physical prototypes, and digital simulations. These tools allow the lab to test solutions and create low, medium, and high-fidelity simulations, as well as Digital Twins. Such simulations are invaluable for further testing and decision-making processes.
Ultimately, “transportation is not the end; it’s the means to a purpose” - Chen, 2019