Designing the shift: a participatory action design research approach to Mobility-as-a-Service for a net-zero campus precinct

Designing the shift: a participatory action design research approach to Mobility-as-a-Service for a net-zero campus precinct

This practice based PhD investigates how a future Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform can support international student drivers at Monash University's Clayton campus in reducing their reliance on private cars. Working with international students as co-designers, the project develops and evaluates Go Green! Monash, an early stage MaaS platform concept that combines multimodal journey planning, community engagement, reward mechanisms, and personalised carbon feedback to support lower carbon commuting and contribute towards a preferable net zero future.

Monash University has committed to enabling at least 80 percent of students and staff to access its Australian campuses through sustainable transport by 2030. Achieving this target at the Clayton campus depends not only on transport infrastructure but also on changing everyday travel behaviours, particularly among international student drivers whose commuting habits are often established soon after arriving in Australia and become increasingly difficult to alter over time.

Chenlizhe (Mark) Yang is a PhD candidate in the Mobility Design Lab at Monash University. His practice based design research investigates how a future Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) digital platform can encourage international student car drivers to make more sustainable travel decisions when commuting to the Clayton campus. The research positions international students not simply as transport users but as active participants in the design process whose lived experiences shape the development of future mobility services.

The project adopts a participatory design approach that combines field observations, interviews, participatory design workshops, and iterative prototyping. These activities informed the development of Go Green! Monash, an early stage Mobility as a Service platform concept that integrates multimodal journey planning with community participation, reward mechanisms, gamification, and personalised carbon feedback to encourage sustainable commuting behaviours.

Grounded in practice based design research, the project draws on theories of sustainable mobility transitions, service design, participatory design, and future oriented design to examine how digital platforms can facilitate behavioural change within university precincts. Through service blueprinting, journey mapping, scenario development, and interactive prototyping, the research demonstrates how design practice can translate institutional net zero ambitions into meaningful everyday mobility experiences.

The research contributes a participatory design framework for developing future Mobility as a Service platforms within university settings and provides evidence that digital service experiences, interface design, and community engagement might play a significant role in supporting the adoption of sustainable transport. The project offers practical insights for designers, universities, and policy makers seeking to accelerate the transition towards lower carbon campus mobility systems in the near future.

* This project is associated with an ARC linkage project - Net Zero Precinct: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Decarbonising Cities (ARC Linkage project LP200100296). This research has been approved by Monash University Human Research Ethics (Approval #42308).

Supervisor

• Dr Emma Quilty