Interaction Design for Territories: Fostering Community-Centered Design Experiences in Peri-Urban Contexts

Territories serve as a cognitive system for local societies, consolidating languages, shared experiences, and identities. As cities expand and peri-urban areas emerge, territories evolve, prompting the development of new design models. These models adopt a multisectoral, collaborative, and localized approach to address issues such as local economic development, quality of life, and active population participation. Promoting social interaction through activities and/or services fosters lasting relationships, strengthening communities. These interactions celebrate diversity and unity, creating spaces for sharing, collaboration, dialogue, and empathy. Interaction design for territories aims to advance sustainable development by considering not only the physical aspects of the territory but also human relationships, heritage preservation, responsible resource use, and cultural identity. We aim to present opportunities for interaction design to intervene in peri-urban contexts by fostering more personalized and engaging community-centered experiences. This paper, structured as a literature review, explores interaction design for territories as a mindset, process, tools, and interdisciplinary language. It introduces key concepts for designing experiences for visitors and local communities, including authenticity, co-creation, storytelling, and emotional atmospheres. Examining the cultural mapping of Lousa in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal, the paper proposes an augmented reality (AR) application to mediate social interactions and enhance cultural and natural heritage. It questions the synergy between interaction design for territories and service design, emphasizing their potential to foster trust and efficiency in the digital era. The analysis under-scores the profound impact of interaction design as a catalyst for behavioral change, creating cohesive and community-oriented social interactions within territories.