At home in Brussels: professional mobility as a service

An emerging generation of mobile applications is viewing mobility as a way to create interactive experiences that rely on or exploit movement and space in the urban context. By drawing on a user–oriented design approach, this paper investigates the initial design stages of a mobile relocation service application (linked to a Web–based service) developed for professionals relocating to the city of Brussels. This approach provides insight into several socio–spatial factors underpinning the relocation process. The findings demonstrate that the user–mobile application dynamic associated with a personalized experience augments and facilitates how people come to plan and understand cities, how they manage certain services and utilities, and hence how they seek to shape life in a new city.