Layer 1. Baseline survey – participant priorities for design quality
The first layer focusses on understanding baseline perceptions of participants concerning their design priorities for the area being investigated.
By gathering participants’ broad perceptions of design quality in the built environment, a baseline understanding can be established that provides context for later stages where aesthetic preferences are examined in greater detail. This wider lens recognises that people evaluate places not only for their visual qualities, but also for their functionality.
Step 1: Identify the participant groups
Select the groups whose views will inform the survey. In Urban Beauty, knowing the unknowable that meant:
• Over 1,000 local councillors (politicians) representing local authorities from across the UK
• A smaller group of local planning officers that represented 57 local planning authorities across England.
Local politicians represent local communities but come from all walks of life. Their views consequently represented a useful surrogate for lay (non-expert) public opinion. Surveying planners gave a contrasting professional perspective. For most such surveys, the general public will be the target, or otherwise particular segments of the public or identified stakeholder groups.
Step 2: Self-identify context and collect demographic data
If the analysis is covering very different types of context, for example residential development in urban and suburban areas, then participants should, first, be asked to self-identify the type of context they are living in. This ensures that, in subsequent layers, they can be shown images suited to their circumstances. Pre-prepared definitions can help them to decide, such as:
• Central, a town or city centre
• Urban, typically medium or higher density areas dominated by apartment blocks and terraced housing
• Suburban, typically lower density areas with detached and semi-detached houses, but also some terraces and blocks
• Rural, dominated by smaller settlements within the countryside
At this point, following appropriate anonymisation and privacy assurances, it may also be appropriate to request relevant background data such as gender, age, employment and housing tenure.
Step 3: Ask an initial question on overall importance
Next, gauge how important design quality is as a public policy issue by asking “As a local political priority, how important is a well-designed built environment?” This question establishes the overall significance respondents attach to design quality in the built environment, best captured on a five-part Likert scale from unimportant through to very important as shown in the pie chart drawn from Urban Beauty, knowing the unknowable.
Step 4: Explore what ‘design quality’ means in practice
Moving from general attitudes to specific qualities associated with design quality, a follow-up question can focus in more detail on what respondents consider important in a well-designed environment. A simple question such as: “how important are the following qualities in new neighbourhoods?” can be used followed by a series of statements describing different qualities of neighbourhood design from ‘streets are walkable’ to ‘a beautiful place’. In the example, 19 such statements were used, randomised when shown to participants to avoid order bias in responses and scored on the same five-part scale.
Step 5: Use the results to provide context for later analysis
Simple quantitative analysis of the responses can reveal how participants prioritise different aspects of design quality, offering a baseline through which to interpret results from subsequent layers.