An analysis of usage of different types of visualisation media within a collaborative planning workshop environment

Within the planning process, there is a recent trend to engage with stakeholders. Traditionally, visualisation media such as plans, sections and physical models have been used to aid communication of planning proposals, yet technological advances now allow for virtual interactive, three dimensional (3D) visualisations of proposals to be created. It is unclear whether these newer technologies will usurp or augment the more traditional media. In an experimental setting, a set of participants in a collaborative planning workshop were introduced to a range of different visualisation media for a riverside flood defence proposal and asked to discuss the proposal. Video recordings were made of the workshop and a questionnaire was completed by each participant. A method for capturing the timed usage of each media type is presented, which shows that plans and interactive eye-level walk-throughs were the most utilised media types, but that user based assessment of the media did not match the observed usage. These results lead to conclusions about the format of software tools that should be created to support the participatory planning process.