Designer, with a PhD from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (UP), researcher at the UP’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, and currently university professor.
Ran her first company for 15 years –
O Atelier da Imagem.
Received several awards, notably the 1st European Award for the brand “Eurocities, the network of major European cities”.
Developed projects for countries such as Portugal, USA, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Libya, Mexico, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, Angola and Russia.
In 2010, created an entirely new system of geolocation and organization of cities, called City Cos®. This stops tourists and residents from getting lost, introducing a new concept of thinking about and experiencing cities.

In this image, people are trying to figure out “I’m here” (step 1).
This is the first step before starting any journey — only subsequently can the movement to the destination, “Where am I going” and “How do I go” (step 2), start. City Cos® addresses “I’m here” (step 1) by providing geolocation, and also addresses step 2, with the help of paper or digital maps.

Even with these tools, more than half the population — 63% of those questioned, get lost involuntarily. Being lost means not knowing where one is. When this happens, unwantedly, it can be costly, and cause negative feelings, such as insecurity, fear, anxiety, panic, discomfort, nervousness, impatience, frustration, helplessness, despair, disorientation, anxiety, and stress.
Being lost may result in missing a flight, a meeting, a medical consultation, meeting a friend, a talk, or in not finding a hotel or where one parked a car.
To solve this problem, we created an extremely simple and fast system – City Cos® – Coordinate Orientation System.

City Cos® is a registered trademark with all rights reserved.

— Innovative;
— Consists, primarily, in the interaction between maps and urban signage;
— Does without new digital technologies, but is designed to be used by them;
— Primarily targeted towards urban areas, their tourists, and residents;
— Allows geolocation at high speed;
— Directs its users;
— Organizes cities (postal codes, transport, among others);
— Enhances tourism, the city’s reputation, and mobility;
— Provides security.

The research on this system started in 2010, and was validated scientifically.
Approximately 1000 people participated; 500 touristic maps, from five continents, were studied; questionnaires were prepared; authors of European maps were interviewed; the newest orientation systems of Manhattan, London, Paris, Bristol, and Sydney were examined; real orientation tests were done in London, Aveiro, and Porto; as well as testing in the field and in the laboratory with statistical results.

THE RESULTS
The statistical results of the tests showed that City Cos® was 450% faster in geolocation than the comparison model used in the city chosen as laboratory.

THE SAMPLE
Our sample consisted of people in the fields of psychology, engineering, hospitality, tourism, cleaning, politics, design, management, carpentry, philosophy, medicine, mechanics, history, pharmacy, among other areas; aged between fourteen and eighty; of both genders; of ethnic heterogeneity; with between four to twenty-five years of schooling.