1st End-user Design Workshop in Turin 

The first End-user Design Workshop of the TIPS4PED project took place in the lighthouse city of Turin in May 2025. This workshop marked a critical milestone within Task 4.2, titled “Co‑design, co‑creation and gamification,” which centers on integrating the lived experiences, needs, and perspectives of city residents and local stakeholders into the broader development of Positive Energy District (PED) tools and interventions. 

The event convened a diverse group of participants, including municipal staff from Turin’s urban planning and sustainability departments, external citizen engagement consultants, representatives of neighborhood associations, and technical experts from academic and industry partners of the TIPS4PED consortium. Over the course of a full-day session, the group engaged in a structured “appathon,” a collaborative design sprint adapted for the PED context. Participants were assigned predefined user personas reflecting a spectrum of resident archetypes, from technology-averse individuals concerned with privacy to early adopters enthusiastic about digital innovation. 

Using these personas as a lens, teams explored how specific lifestyle patterns, social concerns, and behavioral tendencies intersect with the goals of PEDs, such as energy sharing, consumption monitoring, or microgrid participation. A sequence of scaffolded exercises guided the teams from conceptual mapping to interface ideation. Participants produced sketches, annotated flowcharts, and scenario descriptions outlining potential digital tools (primarily mobile applications or browser-based dashboards) that could facilitate community engagement with PED technologies. 

By the conclusion of the session, several paper-based prototypes were created and documented for internal review by the project consortium. These early-stage concepts will undergo evaluation for usability, technical feasibility, and alignment with the broader TIPS4PED system architecture. Selected prototypes may be further refined and tested in subsequent work packages.

The City of Turin, as host and active project partner, provided essential logistical coordination, ensured local stakeholder involvement, and contributed urban governance expertise. External consultants specializing in participatory design methodologies attended the workshop as observers, with plans to replicate the co-design framework in upcoming civic engagement initiatives beyond the scope of TIPS4PED. 

This initial workshop served not only as a methodological pilot but also as a foundational reference for scaling similar end-user engagement efforts in other cities involved in the project. Future iterations of the workshop will be organized in collaboration with additional municipal partners, expanding the co-design process across different urban contexts to capture a broader range of user insights and needs.