Diagrams, comics and infographics are good tools to communicate complex data in a simple way. Bullet points and clear titles tend to work better than long, wordy paragraphs. Word clouds also offer a good opportunity to show priorities and hierarchies, there is a wide range of free software available online to produce word clouds.
3. Data collection & analysis
The purpose of community engagement is not to gather huge amounts of evidence to support design decisions but to give communities a true voice. Designers, applicants and officers are encouraged to use existing data from valid, robust sources as long as this is no older than five years. Nottingham Insight is a very useful source of data and mapping for the city of Nottingham.
Data collected during community engagement will not replace large datasets for statistical analysis, but it will compliment those with place-specific information, most of which will be of a qualitative nature, rather than numerical.
For example, neighbours might be able to bring to light specific issues such as litter, poor illumination or antisocial behaviours. In addition, they might be able to give designers a picture of how people live in the area and what matters the most to them. For example, a walkway that connects to a park might be of great importance to local people. The real value of community engagement emerges when designers are aware of these issues from the outset and when they work alongside residents in finding ways in which new development can help improve the area. Case officers dealing with planning applications will pay special attention to the key messages from the community and how these translated into specific design solutions.
Engagement Criteria
3.3 Detail how many people participated in each event, survey or questionnaire
3.2 Explain how the data was recorded and analysed (e.g. survey software, cloud word analysis, etc.)
3.3 List the key findings on the basis of quantitative and qualitative analysis
3.4 Explain how the results of the engagement informed the proposals or the changes made during the design process