Co-creating smart places

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The first principle of the Smart Places Customer Charter is co-creating smart places. Co-creation goes beyond consulting stakeholders on a proposed solution.

To co-create, you will need to maintain continuous engagement throughout the smart places lifecycle. This includes the people in your community and those who visit your place.

We recommend deliberative or educational engagement methods. This allows people the time and space to provide thoughtful input.

Your engagement activities should be inclusive and accessible. We recommend seeking feedback from different groups like:

First Nations people
people with accessibility needs
younger people
older people
women, girls and gender diverse people
people with disability and mobility needs
culturally and linguistically diverse people
people with lower digital skills, or limited access to the internet.

Starting with Country

First Nations people are pioneers for co-design thinking and approaches. We recommend prioritising respect for First Nations people in all smart places.

This includes respect for the rights, obligations and roles as Traditional Custodians of the land, sea and waterways.

You can do this by:

finding ways to celebrate Aboriginal culture and heritage
contributing to economic independence and self-determination for First Nations people.

Refer to the NSW Government Data Strategy to understand more about Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance. See the relevant detail under the principles of the NSW Government Data Strategy.

Human-centred design

Human-centred design (HCD) is an approach to problem solving that puts people at the centre of the solution.

In smart places, this means putting the needs of people who live, work and visit a place first. It puts the community at the centre of considering and designing smart solutions.

If possible, these people should form part of the design team. This approach will ensure solutions address community needs and have a higher degree of acceptance.