1.4.

Qualitative Research Methods

Various methods for qualitative research were studied to understand the techniques of
survey and interpretation of qualitative data that may be obtained during the research
process. The qualitative research methods are broadly classified under the heads of tools
and techniques that can be used for qualitative data collection and analysis methods which
can be utilised for analysing the obtained qualitative data.

• Visual preference survey (VPS)

• Community Image Survey (CSI)
• Cognitive Mapping
• Photomontage
• Sonic Mapping
• Observation- Direct Observation, Windshield Surveys, Field Notes
• Interviews- Focus Group, semi-structured
• Questionnaire

1.4.1. Visual Preference Survey

This technique was developed in late 1970’s by an urban planner Anton Tony Nelessen
[ CITATION Vis14 \l 16393 \m New14] , to analyse and obtain public feedback on physical
design alternatives. It can be used when formulating zoning codes, planning redevelopment,
and conducting urban planning research.

The survey consists of a series of images that participants have to score according to their
preference. The images can be actual photographs or computer-simulated images depicting
potential urban environments or residential environment. The participants' input is used to
make decisions about the future built environment of the residential or the urban area
under study. The public participation in the visual preference survey is dependent on the
type of visual preference survey technique employed, for example, it may be in a focus
group format or as a part of public hearing or meeting process.

Importance/ Advantages:

The technique can also complement other survey techniques. It can also be used in
conjunction with public meetings or hearings, activities involving vision development, design
charters, and focus group discussions or small group meetings.

Disadvantages:
VPS has to be specifically tailored for the community and location, generated after detailed
discussions, field investigations and photographic reconnaissance. Lighting, weather, and
background activities might influence preferences of the participants. It is also possible for
the public to develop false expectations based on the visual rendering. It is a time
consuming technique since it will require the development of one or more visual renderings
of options or design features under consideration.

Process and sampling

Citizen’s views paired images of different built environments and then indicate a preference
by ranking each image using this technique. The VPS is usually administered to groups of
100 to 300 people. After respondents have made their choices, survey results are tabulated
quickly and reviewed with the group by the end of a workshop session.

Visual Preference Survey Content

The challenge while using this technique is in the selection of a manageable number of
elements to test in a manner which introduces as few outside variables as possible. It should
test preferences for specific design elements e.g., variations of building form configurations,
or architectural styles within a single general urban/suburban form typology. A survey that
tests too many variables will produce unreliable and unusable results.

Survey Photo Selection

Only one element should be tested at a time in any given photo to understand the elements
that influence visual preference. The survey consists of a series of “before/after” or
“either/or” photos for measuring preferences for one element or configuration over others.
By randomizing photo order and ensuring that no pairings are shown back to back, this
method eliminates other variables from affecting preference ratings and elicits accurate
participant responses.

Survey Photo Quality and Composition

Visualizations should provide a convincing illustration that allows survey participants to

accurately indicate their preferences, but should not provide an overly artistic expression of
a design element that influences the rating with unrelated preferences for visual graphic
design.

Visual Preference Survey Design and Distribution

Survey design and distribution methods affect responses by participants. Hence participants
are given instructions on the criteria they should use to rate the photographs. A simple and
short explanation of the intent and purpose of the survey is provided at the beginning of the
survey, so the criteria are consistent and valid. A short form prompt, such as a single
sentence reminding participants of the rating criteria, can be included on slides of photos.

Rating System

A Likert scale rating system can be used as it allows participants to rate photos. Descriptive
labels for the rating scale should be consistent with survey prompts. A 7-point scale from -3
(very unattractive) to +3 (very attractive), with a neutral value at zero, is sufficient for a
preference survey.

Calibration Photos and Image Randomization

A survey should be designed to minimize the effects of presentation order on the

preferences for images relative to one another.

Survey Length

A survey should be designed to take a maximum of 10-15 minutes to complete. Care should
be taken to frame the survey in a straightforward way and provide simple prompts.

1.4.2. Community Image Survey

A visual survey technique was developed by the Centre for Livable Communities (CLS)
[ CITATION Com14 \l 16393 ]. Their website [ CITATION Com14 \l 16393 ]describes it as follows:

The Community Image Survey consists of forty slides from a community or region.
Approximately eighty percent of the slides come from the specific locale in which the
survey is administered. Taken as a whole, the forty slides present contrasting images
of our living environment—its streets, houses, stores, office buildings, parks, open
space and key civic features.

It is intended to evaluate the public’s opinions and preferences about the physical
environment by asking the respondent to score a series of images on the basis of each
participant’s relative like or dislike of the images and the photographed situation. The
images can show various conditions of urban development: traffic congestion, pedestrian
activity, and include specific elements such as housing, streets, sidewalks, retail stores,
office buildings, architectural styles, parking lots, and mass transit in the residential
neighbourhood.

Advantages

It facilitates community involvement in place making of the residential areas. According to

the Centre for Livable Communities [ CITATION Com14 \l 16393 ]
The Community Image Survey (CSI) is a powerful planning and public participation
tool that can help decision makers and their constituents. Rather than using words to
 describe places, the Survey uses visual images to help people better understand
crucial planning elements and make more informed, proactive decisions about
creating places where they want to live, work, shop and play.

Disadvantages

The definition of what constitutes a place varies according to the perception of the people.
Sense of place incorporates a range of engaged bodily experiences, not merely passive
appreciation of visual imagery. Image-based approaches to urban planning thus run the risk
of fostering an inattentiveness to—and subsequent undervaluing of—socioeconomic,
historical and political realities.

Process

The survey is conducted at the beginning of the first public meeting to record the audience’s
reactions before they can be influenced by the subsequent presentation to be given by
designer or planner. The survey is administered by showing a pre-prepared and automated
PowerPoint presentation and having the participants or the residents mark their scores on a
pre-printed response sheet. A total of forty images [ CITATION Com14 \l 16393 ] are
presented, in sequence, for eight seconds each without any commentary or statements. The
participants are then asked to indicate their opinion or preference of each image by grading
it on a scale ranging from minus ten (-10), indicating a strong dislike, to plus ten (+10),
indicating a strong like. Before the sequence of forty is shown, a sampling of six images is
shown to give the audience a feel for the range of subjects they are about to see, and to
help calibrate their personal scoring criteria. After the sequence of images is shown, the
response sheets are collected for tabulation. All responses are entered into a spreadsheet
that calculates a mean score as well as a standard deviation for each image. The results are
then sorted to identify the five highest scoring images and the five lowest scoring images.
The results are also sorted by standard deviation in order to identify the images that had the
highest and lowest degree of consensus.

1.4.3. Photomontage

This technique can be applied to small scale urban design in the residential neighborhood,
such as:
 Infill projects,
 Improvement of the neighborhood streetscapes,
 Neighborhood redevelopment initiatives,
The technique can also be used where extensive details are to be created to give realistic-
looking design alternatives which are to be selected through public opinion and community
participation. Montage can however, be also used on a larger scale to understand the
regional implication of the built form. This technique can help in decision making while
developing a residential neighborhood.

Issues

Montage technique can be time consuming and expensive. Since photomontage looks real,
users must be made aware during the survey, not to set unrealistic expectations about what
a community shall gain out of the whole planning/ design process. There has to be a
consideration for the participants with visual impairments. The researcher should be aware
of the biases that can result from the photos used to create montages.

1.4.4. Cognitive Mapping

Images which people hold of their physical environment are the ones which are most
important to the environmental designers and researchers. Some methods for extracting
the information inside people’s mind include observation of responses (through
questionnaire) and visual methods of interviewing (photo interviewing). Another category
of extracting this information is to ask the subjects to record self- reports about the
environment either while experiencing it or while recording it. It can be in the form of:
verbal, written, or visual. Maps generated in these experiments give information on
proximity, enclosure, order, sequence; they do not yield any information on metric
information. Thus it determines individual’s spatial behaviour

Issues
Skill of the subjects as it requires memory skills, graphic or cartographic skills.

1.4.5. Sonic Mapping

While most studies in perception address visual information, there is also an auditory
component of the environment which can be identified and mapped graphically. Adding
sonic characters can mask noise, ameliorate visually unpleasant or uninteresting areas,
increase the identity of settings and provide novel and pleasant experiences. Sonic signs
identifying local activities, conveying public information and calling out landmarks could be
better used do give special character and added dimension to urban scenes.

1.5. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data

• Content analysis
 • Semantic Differential Analysis
• Semiotic Analysis

1.5.1. Content Analysis

It is used to code and interpret secondary data that are in a non-numeric format. Data is
typically text-based, image-based or in another format where words and images are the
primary way that information is recorded. Thus the data may include:

a) Articles from newspaper

b) Popular magazines
c) Trade journals
d) Product labelling and advertisement
e) Business records
f) Correspondences
g) Memorandums
h) Minutes
i) Reports
j) Studies
k) Policy evaluation
l) Other archival material
A common characteristic of the data collected is that it is text oriented and narrative.

Advantages

Data are highly accessible, and often found in the public domain or collected from private
and institutional archives. Data collection and analysis can be replicated by multiple
investigators. Data analysis is process oriented, making it conducive to evaluating the
implementation of public policy and evaluating planning and program outcomes and
informing future research. Content analysis is relatively cost effective as the main cost that
researcher incurs when using content analysis are associated with retrieving secondary
data.

Limitations
Data comes from secondary sources that were collected before a research focus was
established. Data may be sorted and formatted from multiple sources and in a manner that
is internally inconsistent. The source and purpose for collecting data can be ambiguous, and
the audience it was intended for may not be compatible with the framework adopted for
the research. Data are often text based and not recorded in a manner that is easily used for
hypothesis testing and casual analysis.

Approaches to content analysis

Manifest Content Analysis

It focuses on counting the frequency of keywords, phrases, or concepts in text. It can also be
applied to photographic and other visual data where the attributes of images are accounted
and catalogued. The researcher often identifies a manifest coding scheme in advance and
uses predetermined codes to record the frequency of the words, phrases and concept that
occur in the data. The researcher often constructs a matrix to count the frequency that
specific character appears in the data.

Latent Content Analysis

It is based on an interpretative reading of underlying meanings in written document,

images, films, audio recordings, or other secondary data sources. Techniques such as open
coding and focused coding are used to identify themes and concept and generate grounded
theory (a systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the construction of theory
through the analysis of data)

Presentation of Latent Content

Findings are presented in narrative format.

 Concepts that emerge from analysis are introduced

 Excerpts from the data exemplify them are presented
 Then quotes are contextualize

Manifest Content Analysis Latent Content Analysis

• Calculates frequencies of keywords, • Analysis is based on an interpretive

phrases, and concepts in text, images,
and other data sources.
• Data are analysed using a matrix of
predetermined codes
characteristics
• Coded data are quantified in a tabular
form and summarised with applicable
descriptive and inferential statistics
reading of underlying meanings of text-
based secondary data.
• Data are analysed using open and
and focused coding techniques similar to
those used with data from field
observation and interviews.
• Findings are presented in a narrative
format that follows a structure where
concepts are introduced, excerpts from
the data are presented to illustrate
them, and then the quote is further
contextualized

1.5.2. Open and focused coding techniques[ CITATION Jho09 \l 16393 ]

Open Coding

It involves the reading of field notes,

transcripts, and other documents line-by
line and assigning codes to distinct parts of
the large text in the data. The coding
process involves line-by- line coding. Each
line of the data is read and codes are
assigned to all relevant segments. Codes
are words or brief phrases that capture the
meaning conveyed in data, they are
generally descriptive in nature. Codes can
be researcher generated words or in vivo
terms. A single phrase can have a number
of codes assigned to it during the open
coding process. Source: Saldana, J. (2009)

Focused Coding

It involves comparing the result from open coding, synthesizing information, and
constructing broad, categories which cover many issues or angles of the data. The process of
coding and recoding data is often referred as constant comparative method. This form of
analysis has been used with qualitative data that are in written form, such as field notes,
interview transcripts. It can also be applied to visual data, audio recordings and other
formats.

1.5.3. Semantic Differential Analysis

Studies of environmental perception involve four group of variables:

1. Observers
2. Modes of Observation
3. Environments
4. Attributes of environment

The encoding instrument used in eliciting descriptive judgements is based on a technique

that uses bipolar scale of attributes in the form of semantic differential. It is assumed that
the selection of less ambiguous words will be an important factor in determining the
subject’s reaction to the words. An adhoc list of attributes are to be drawn from the terms
most frequently used by designers in their judgement and description of the environment.
4.6.4. Semiotic Analysis [ CITATION Mar95 \l 16393 ]

Semiotics is concerned with everything that can take signs. It can be regarded as study of
the signs or system of signs and it concerns the principles by which signification occurs. It
looks for surface manifestation and underlying structure that gives meaning to these
manifestations. Denotative and connotative meanings are often used in semiotic analysis in
relation to surface manifestation and underlying structures. Denotations are explicit
meanings whereas connotative are implied meanings. The mechanism most often cited by
semioticians as ways of producing meanings are metaphor (same sign and signified are not
in same domain), metonomy (sign and signified are in the same domain), and opposition
(eg. Entrance and Exit)

1. Semiotic Clustering

2. Semiotic Chains

3. Semiotic Squares