Visualization Tools and Methods in Community Planning: From Freehand Sketches to Virtual Reality

Abstract

As new computerized visualization tools become available, planning professionals who engage in public participation planning must have a practical understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of each tool in order to choose the ones appropriate for a given context. This article reviews both traditional and computerized visualization tools and attempts to provide a general map for planners as they navigate through the multitude of options that currently exist for visualization in public participation planning. The article is organized around a conceptual model that shows the relationship between eight visualization tools (four traditional and four computerized) and two types of communication media.Although the advent of computerized visualization has drawn new attention to the ways in which complex information can be communicated, visualization itself is not a new phenomenon. Visualization has been used in maps, scientific drawings, and data plots for more than one thousand years. In his books on visualization, Edward Tufte (1997, 1990, 1983) has provided numerous examples of premodern visualization masterpieces. Tufte lucidly describes and illustrates universal design concepts for visualizing numbers, nouns, motion, process, explanations, and narratives. He provides general principles that have specific visual consequences governing the design of data representations. Most of these concepts carry over easily into computer visualization. The use of color, line, images, and layering, for instance, form a foundation for understanding and presenting complex data. He writes, "By extending the visual capacities of paper, video and computer screen, we are able to extend the depth of our own knowledge and experience" (Tufte 1997, 10).Visual images give us instant clues to information. Scientists such as Feldman et al. (1989) report that an estimated one-third of the human brain is devoted to vision and visual memory. Engaging that sense can help scientists and nonscientists alike better understand complex natural phenomena. Reduced to visual imagery,is an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He teaches geographic information systems, urban data visualizations, Web-based applications, and urban design. Previously, he worked for the company of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago, where he designed projects in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He has developed several online projects that integrate traditional and computerized visualization tools to create interactive environments that foster public participation. He has applied new planning tools and methods in a number of Chicago communities that have been underrepresented in public policy making in order to improve the quality of life in these communities.

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