What-if: A Digital Testbed for Urban Innovation

A web application for exploring urban interventions through structured scenario analysis and stakeholder impact assessment.

Overview

What-if helps urban planners, policymakers, and community members explore the potential impacts of urban interventions through a simplified, narrative-focused approach. Rather than complex simulations, it generates structured stress-test narratives that consider stakeholder perspectives, system effects, and implementation challenges.

Key Design Principles

1. Required First, Optional Progressive

• Required fields: City/place, scope, main challenges
• Optional fields: Population context, political context, budget constraints, etc.
• Progressive disclosure: Users can add more details without blocking scenario generation

2. Portfolio Approach

• Combine multiple interventions to create synergistic effects
• Identify gaps and opportunities across different categories
• Analyze how different intervention types work together

3. Stress-Test Narratives

• Focus on stakeholders, risks, and next experiments rather than predictions
• Generate structured analysis with clear confidence levels
• Provide actionable insights for decision-making

User Flow

1. Ask a What-if Question

Start with outcomes-focused questions like:

• "What if we could enhance the collective intelligence of Helsinki?"
• "What if we could cool Madrid by 8.5 degrees celsius?"
• "What if we could eliminate traffic fatalities in Singapore?"

2. Choose a City Context

Select from existing cities or create a custom city profile with:

• Required: Name, scale, main challenges
• Optional: Population context, vulnerable groups, regulatory context, etc.

3. Pick Interventions (Portfolio Approach)

Select multiple interventions to create synergistic effects:

• Required: Title, summary, category, scope of application
• Optional: Detailed description, parameters, synergies, risks, etc.
• View detailed information in pop-up modals
• Build portfolios across different intervention categories

4. Generate Scenario Analysis

Get a structured analysis including:

• Narrative Summary: 5-8 sentence story of what might happen
• Stakeholder Impacts: Benefits, concerns, and engagement needs for each group
• System Effects: Cross-domain impacts with polarity and confidence levels
• Policy Interactions: How interventions interact with existing policies
• Risks & Unknowns: Potential challenges and uncertainties
• Signals to Watch: Observable indicators of progress
• Next Experiments: Concrete, low-effort tests to reduce uncertainty

Contributing

This is an experimental tool for urban innovation. Contributions are welcome, particularly around:

• Additional intervention categories and examples
• Improved AI prompts for scenario generation
• Enhanced stakeholder analysis frameworks

License and attribution

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details. Made by Eunsoo Lee with help from Cursor. This is currently a hobby-project.