A social media platform enabling citizens to shape their city

Localist is an engaging online platform that aims to enhance citizen participation in shaping communities and cities. The platform allows people to share their ideas and opinions on city amenities, as well as provide suggestions on how to best utilize empty spaces in their neighborhoods. This could include proposing new businesses, improving infrastructure, or suggesting local amenities like coffee bars and restaurants. The ultimate goal of the Localist platform is to empower people to have a voice in community development and to help municipalities better understand their citizens, working together to create a better place to live for everyone.

I have designed the Localist platform to reflect the same powerful energy as the initiative itself. It aims to empower local communities to come together and actively participate in shaping their cities. The hub is structured as a bulletin board, reminiscent of the meeting points for city communities in the 70s.

Localist’s user-experience and interface have been designed with a focus on key functionalities, such as sharing ideas for both empty and active places, and engaging in conversations with other people from the neighborhood to improve the area they live in. The main interface of the platform consists of a split view, with one side displaying the map of the neighborhood with all added empty and active places, and the other side featuring a feed with a more social view of everything happening in the neighborhood. The feed contains popular comments, new initiatives, community votes, as well as empty and active places.