SERVICE DESIGN · APP UI · POLITECNICO DI MILANO
LYNK
Find your way
MY ROLE
Shaping concept & App UI Design
Year
2024, top grade
Team
5 designers, PSSD PS1
Context
Design service digitaly & physicaly for Milan's youth
THE PROBLEM
A square young people pass through — never stop in.
The Municipality of Milan looked at Piazzale Cantore — one of the busiest junctions in the city — and saw potential: a place that could ease Milan's traffic, draw young people back into public life, and make shared, public transport the natural way to move.
But the square had quietly become the opposite of that ambition. Cars took it over; green space, safe walkways and any reason to stop disappeared, and the historic Caselli were reduced to passageways. For the young people living around it, Piazzale Cantore had become a dead end — physically choked by traffic, and disconnected from the digital, social pulse of the city around it.
It can no longer be considered a square — Piazzale Cantore has become a large car park without rules.
DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT
Youth are shaped by the city around them.
Young people build their identity through their environment — its physical surroundings and its social life. To ease that shaping process, two levers matter most: how freely they can move, and how easily they can connect through activities. Those two levers became the foundation of LYNk.
Moving freely is a form of freedom.
For young people, mobility isn't just getting from A to B — it's independence, and a way to feel part of the city. The more freely they move, the more connected they become. LYNk shifts travel from routine move — the door-to-door obligation — toward free move: car-free, multi-modal, open to exploration.
MY CONTRIBUTION 01 — THE CONCEPT
An infinite loop of move & discover.
In our concept sessions I introduced the idea that became the project's backbone: link Milan's scattered Caselli — the old customs gates — into one continuous, walkable network, built on a model of infinity. You move to discover, and you discover by moving.
Young people want to keep their freedom — while still feeling connected to the city. LYNk gives them both.
MY POINT OF VIEW
A truly smart city isn't built on advanced technology — it's built on advanced services and simple ideas, designed around real people.
Understand who you're designing for, connect what already exists, and you get a smarter city than any sensor network would deliver.
MY CONTRIBUTION 02 — THE APP
One app that makes the whole network findable.
I designed the app's visual UI and translated our offering map into concrete features — deciding how every service surfaces and becomes joinable. Two modes carry it: Smart Route for moving, Explore City for discovering.
Smart route:
Authorisation in app helps to enter one's own account with already saved preferences and interests
City Map shows person geolocation and allows to build a route. Bottom navigation bar displays main sections
Micro mobility filter, which, by real-time tracking helps to find available transport nearby and book it
Route personalisation by setting up filters that ensure the most comfortable and enjoyable travel
Explore city:
City Map which serves as a home page, has two extra filters, one of which enable city discovering
Activities filter that by real-time tracking helps to find activities, events and places nearby and join them
Heat-map of interests shows your most visited parts of the city and suggests activities based on them
Events selection helps to find different activities around the city and reserve them. Flow is based on your interests
The Solution
Two halves that feed each other.
LYNk works as a digital guide and a physical network — and my app UI is the entry point that makes the whole system legible and usable.
BEHIND THE DESIGN — THE FULL SERVICE SYSTEM
Every service, and how it holds together.
The concept only works if the services and stakeholders behind it are mapped. These are the offering and system maps — the depth that turns a nice idea into a workable municipal service.
From concept to city
A phased roadmap, built to be real.
The plan is staged with the Municipality of Milan — urban renewal, the Caselli, the app (my UI/UX work sits at the very start), and marketing — so the concept reads as something a city could actually deliver.
From concept to city
The biggest idea, carried by the simplest one.
LYNk taught me that an ambitious "smart city" vision can rest on a single human insight — freedom and connection — rather than on spending or sensors. Linking the Caselli into one network, and designing the app that makes it usable, is the contribution I'm proudest of: it gave a real municipal brief a backbone the whole team could build on.