Collaborami
University team project
2023 / 5 months
For Comune di Milano & G129 Park
problem
The associations managing G129 park had no tools to coordinate, split responsibilities, or involve citizens. The Municipality offered no support after the Pact of Collaboration was activated.
solution
A three-level service system (institutional website, management platform, citizen-facing tools) supporting associations from activation to long-term management.
impact
A replicable system tested with associations, citizens, and the Municipality. G129 finally opened to the public in 2024.
my role
Only Italian speaker in the team. I managed all stakeholder relationships, conducted field interviews, and facilitated co-design sessions.
Key outcomes
6 associations
Involved across research, co-design, and testing
3 service levels
Each designed and tested separately before integration
problem
The associations managing G129 park had no tools to coordinate, split responsibilities, or involve citizens. The Municipality offered no support after the Pact of Collaboration was activated.
solution
A three-level service system (institutional website, management platform, citizen-facing tools) supporting associations from activation to long-term management.
impact
A replicable system tested with associations, citizens, and the Municipality. G129 finally opened to the public in 2024.
my role
Only Italian speaker in the team. I managed all stakeholder relationships, conducted field interviews, and facilitated co-design sessions.
Key outcomes
6 associations
Involved across research, co-design, and testing
3 service levels
Each designed and tested separately before integration
Sense
Three problems, one neighborhood
The brief was to activate the G129 park. After going into the neighborhood, talking to residents and associations, we found three overlapping problems: the Municipality had no support structures for associations after a pact started, the associations couldn't coordinate internally, and residents were tired of being consulted without seeing results. Designing only for citizen engagement would have ignored everything above it. We changed the brief.
Map
Translating complexity into a system
The journey map became our main design tool: who was involved at each level, where the gaps were, and how a coordinated intervention could address all three problems without creating more fragmentation. It also became the best way to communicate the project logic to all stakeholders.
Click to zoom
Design
Three groups, three languages
Three co-design tracks in parallel, one per level. With the Municipality on what associations need to sustain a pact. With associations on splitting responsibilities. With residents, using a physical park model to understand how they'd realistically want to participate. That last session made it clear: they wanted to show up, not organize.
Build
A system that talks to itself
A redesigned Comune di Milano website with templates and guidance for new pacts. A shared Notion board for associations to coordinate tasks and responsibilities. Posters, forms, and a WhatsApp group for citizen engagement. The hardest part was making sure the three levels actually connected, not just coexisted.
Tell
Making it usable, not just presentable
Each touchpoint was designed for its specific audience. The final video brought the whole system together and became the handoff: something the associations could use to explain the pact to new partners, without needing us in the room.
key learnings
A brief is a hypothesis. The project we ended up designing had almost nothing to do with what we were originally asked to build. Recognizing that early enough to act on it was the most important design decision we made.
Public institutions that want to enable civic participation need to support it. The Municipality wanted more pacts activated, but left associations alone the moment one started. Designing for sustainability meant designing for the institution as much as for the community.
