RTA: Expo 2020

CULTURE PRACTICE

Design Thinking

Design-thinking hackathon for Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority to bring global change-makers at Expo 2020 to ideate and prototype projects, initiatives and ventures focused on wellbeing, economic growth and the future.

CATALYSING THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY

Xische’s culture team was tasked with leading and executing RTA’s Hackathon at Expo 2020 Dubai. The hackathon was structured around three key topics relating to economic growth, community happiness, and envisioning the future. 25 experts and specialists from pavilions of countries participating in Expo together with RTA leadership were led by our team for the design-thinking workshop.

The hackathon explored ideas and policies that support economic growth such as investing in RTA’s services and ensuring optimal utilisation of its assets. It also focused on enhancing the integration of RTA services and raising the profile of the emirate to become a hub for innovative technologies, research and studies. Discussions also covered the needs of the upcoming generations and the wellbeing of community as well as the future of mobility, infrastructure and the needs of users in future.

WORK AREAS

We designed and led a 3-hour participatory workshop with lunch and snack breaks. Briefing, brainstorming, ideation, prototyping and presentation were completed during the workshop. Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Singapore, Slovenia, and Luxembourg were present together with RTA Pioneers and leadership.

The workshop was divided into 3 teams based on RTA focus areas: Future Dubai, Happy Dubai, and Economical Growth.

DESIGN THINKING TOOLKIT

Xische’s design thinking toolkit helped enable the hackathon to be distilled into play-driven ideation, prototype and debate to arrive at a full-case for shortlisted ideas. Also deployed were a live voting for real-time selection of ideas.

A variety of ideas and initiatives were presented in the hackathon revolving around the main topics. They support environmental sustainability and the optimal use of technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data.