A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Older people's navigation of urban areas as pedestrians: Measuring quality of the built environment using oral narratives and virtual routes
Research highlights ▶ Existing walkablity and urban design measures have been adapted to incorporate information from oral narratives with older people obtained when viewing an unfamiliar walking route. ▶ The findings indicate that familiarity with some places does not necessarily help older people when navigating and perceiving unfamiliar environments. ▶ Adjustment of built environment scores using information from oral narratives has produced a navigation index capable of being used by local authorities. ▶ Transparency and enclosure in existing urban design quality measure is somewhat redundant for older people and contrary to other research long walls were regarded as an aid to navigation.
Abstract Studies of navigation and walkability of the outdoor built environment are now common. However, few have taken a ‘virtual’ approach and in this study we examine the qualitative oral narratives of forty-eight older people provided whilst they watched film footage of a journey around an unfamiliar, urban landscape, and compare them with quantitative measures of the built environment. Pre-film cognitive/psychological tests were carried out, and the participants filled out a questionnaire covering relevant issues such as feelings about home area and navigational behaviour. From the oral narratives we found that signage as well as the presence of historical and distinctive buildings to be central. There was little evidence that perception of residential (familiar) neighbourhood impacted upon commentary about the unfamiliar space suggesting the findings are generalisable to the wider senior citizen demographic and transferable to other localities. We propose a prototype index for urban landscape navigation from these findings.
Older people's navigation of urban areas as pedestrians: Measuring quality of the built environment using oral narratives and virtual routes
Research highlights ▶ Existing walkablity and urban design measures have been adapted to incorporate information from oral narratives with older people obtained when viewing an unfamiliar walking route. ▶ The findings indicate that familiarity with some places does not necessarily help older people when navigating and perceiving unfamiliar environments. ▶ Adjustment of built environment scores using information from oral narratives has produced a navigation index capable of being used by local authorities. ▶ Transparency and enclosure in existing urban design quality measure is somewhat redundant for older people and contrary to other research long walls were regarded as an aid to navigation.
Abstract Studies of navigation and walkability of the outdoor built environment are now common. However, few have taken a ‘virtual’ approach and in this study we examine the qualitative oral narratives of forty-eight older people provided whilst they watched film footage of a journey around an unfamiliar, urban landscape, and compare them with quantitative measures of the built environment. Pre-film cognitive/psychological tests were carried out, and the participants filled out a questionnaire covering relevant issues such as feelings about home area and navigational behaviour. From the oral narratives we found that signage as well as the presence of historical and distinctive buildings to be central. There was little evidence that perception of residential (familiar) neighbourhood impacted upon commentary about the unfamiliar space suggesting the findings are generalisable to the wider senior citizen demographic and transferable to other localities. We propose a prototype index for urban landscape navigation from these findings.
Older people's navigation of urban areas as pedestrians: Measuring quality of the built environment using oral narratives and virtual routes
Walford, Nigel (author) / Samarasundera, Edgar (author) / Phillips, Judith (author) / Hockey, Ann (author) / Foreman, Nigel (author)
Landscape and Urban Planning ; 100 ; 163-168
2010-12-07
6 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
| British Library Online Contents | 2014