Collaborative visualization tools for urban design

现代城市设计实践包括与多方利益相关者（城市规划者、开发商、居民、商人和游客）广泛协商。这通常是通过研讨会和其他基于社区的活动来进行的，这些活动遵循“基于charrette”的模式，参与者积极探索可选择的城市设计，并从不同的角度讨论其后果。研究人员将与行业合作伙伴EsriCanada合作，将Esri的地理信息系统（GIS）软件工具与现有的研究原型集成，该原型使用多点触控桌面显示来支持城市设计图表。研究将探索替代表示和交互技术，可用于以各种格式（基于桌面的2D地图表示，3D空中和街道视图，以及补充gisview的辅助信息可视化）向charrette参与者提供实时反馈。研究的一个关键要素将是对潜在用户群体进行广泛的可用性测试，包括大学城市设计研究人员、城市规划者和交互设计专家，作为迭代的以人为本的设计过程的一部分。预期的结果将是一系列原型，以测试Esri现有软件工具与城市设计协作可视化工具集成的可行性，以及为未来Esri软件工具提供设计建议，这可能会为Esri打开新的市场。将进行三个研究问题：(a)如何将完整的GIS功能集成到包括交互式触摸桌、墙壁显示器和手持个人设备在内的多显示环境中；(b)如何利用GIS提供协作视觉分析，以评估城市设计的可持续性影响；以及(c)如何使用低成本的方法实现这些目标。商品硬件和软件组件，为公众提供“行走和使用”的体验，同时满足促进城市设计过程的高技能专业人员的更复杂需求。

Modern urban design practice includes extensive consultation with multiple stakeholders (city planners,developers, residents, merchants, and tourists). Often this is carried out through workshops and othercommunity-based events that follow a 'charrette-based' model in which participants actively explore alternativeurban designs and discuss the consequences from various perspectives. Working with industry partner EsriCanada, researchers will adapt Esri's geographic information system (GIS) software tools to integrate with anexisting research prototype that uses a multitouch tabletop display to support urban design charrettes. Theresearch will explore alternative representations and interaction techniques that can be used to providereal-time feedback to charrette participants in a variety of formats (2D map-based representations on thetabletop, 3D aerial and street-level views, and auxiliary information visualizations that supplement the GISviews). A key element of the research will be extensive usability testing with potential user communitiesincluding university urban design researchers, city planners, and interaction design experts as part of aniterative human-centred design process. The expected outcome will be a series of prototypes that test thefeasibility of integrating Esri's existing software tools with urban design collaborative visualization tools, aswell as design recommendations for future Esri software tools that may open new markets for Esri. Threeresearch questions will be pursued: (a) how to integrate full GIS capability into a multi-display environmentcomprising interactive touch tables, wall displays, and hand-held individual devices, (b) how to utilize GIS toprovide collaborative visual analytics for assessing sustainability implications of an urban design, and (c) howto achieve these goals using low-cost, commodity hardware and software components that deliver a 'walk upand use' experience for the general public while meeting the more sophisticated needs of the highly skilledprofessionals who facilitate the urban design process.