VIRTUAL Barcelona Livable Cities

Abstract

City plans are often written for planners, not people. Packed with jargon, zoning labels, and dense documents, traditional long-range strategies risk becoming tools that exclude the communities they aim to serve. This talk presents a bold shift: reimagining comprehensive, downtown, and small-area plans as human-centered city strategies—plans that are not only technically sound but visually clear, emotionally resonant, and culturally relevant. Drawing from real-world projects in the U.S., I will share how visual communication, plain language, multilingual materials, and story-based personas helped transform engagement and trust. Through bilingual boards, icon-based prompts, and simplified narratives, planning became more than a process—it became a shared conversation. The session also highlights design decisions often overlooked, like layout hierarchy, tone of translation, and visual balance, and how these subtle choices shape who feels seen and heard. Whether you’re working on strategic frameworks, small-scale interventions, or public policy plans, this presentation will offer tools and mindset shifts to make your work more accessible, inclusive, and grounded in everyday life. When people recognize themselves in the plan, they are far more likely to support it, shape it, and believe in it.