Completed in just five days, Trans Joy explores the concept of the “Queer City”: creating inclusive spaces and services for citizens of all backgrounds, especially those belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. In this case, the project focuses on the transgender community in Milan’s Municipio 3.
Our challenge was to create an inclusive and educational space that highlighted trans stories and experiences for both LGBTQ+ people and users unfamiliar with what being trans means to different people. Trans Joy takes place in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, in the heart of the Politecnico di Milano.
After completing our desk research and informal user interviews within a short timeframe, we moved into the core of the project through a co-design session with our main stakeholders: Poliedro, the LGBTQ+ student association at Politecnico di Milano; Agedo, a queer association involving families and friends of trans and queer people; and representatives from Milan’s 3rd Municipality City Hall.
Participants from a wide range of stakeholder groups responded to our main prompt with a variety of ideas. We captured the process on video, as seen above.
From this session, we extracted our most vital conclusion: beyond the institutional discrimination transgender people face, they are tired of constantly having to explain themselves and act as the “universal educator” on trans rights and complexities in social environments.
This is why the intervention is called Trans Joy: to explore the many positive aspects of being trans, and how sharing these experiences can contribute to all members of a city.
From there, we developed personas to understand each user archetype’s needs and motivations, using insights from the co-design and interview sessions to land on the project concept.
The concept collage helped us visually communicate the aim of our intervention in the Piazza: a journey of self-discovery.
This journey would guide users through a visual pathway where they could engage with educational resources at their own pace. Rather than creating a static intervention, we wanted to invite direct participation through storytelling, allowing personal narratives and recommendations to become part of the experience of understanding trans identity.
The map shows where each point in our journey would be located. As Trans Joy aims to engage people with transgender joy, while informing them about relevant history, issues, and associations, we first needed to understand who passes through the plaza and at what times.
Many people share this space, but are they sharing their opinions? How can they connect without limitations? How can the queer community tell their story?
These questions helped us map out the content, modularity, and service structure of the intervention.
To raise awareness around the joy of being trans, we used transparent boards as meeting and connection points where people could communicate indirectly, helping create a more open and understanding environment for everyone.
Certain resources were prototyped as closely to the final result as possible within the timeframe. For example, the Instagram gained new followers, interactions, and story reposts as people took part in the final Trans Joy prototype.
Curated content, such as historical context, was also integrated across the digital and physical touchpoints.
Before the final prototyping stage with real users, we developed renders to visualise what the intervention could look like beyond the quick prototype. These were then programmed for a 360-degree virtual reality headset, allowing people to immerse themselves in the projected outcome.
