Human Factors Engineering in Interactive Urban Planning Decision Support Systems

This paper presents a systematic review of technologies designed and developed for urban and architectural planning. The usability and user experiences of urban planning systems designed with mixed reality, virtual reality, tangible interaction, and direct manipulation tabletop interfaces are examined. Emphasis in this review is on the design implications of different interaction modalities in supporting decision making in applied scenarios of urban planning. The human factors engineering process for urban planning decision support systems takes into account the perceptive space, comfort, and productivity of planners and decision makers. Tactile fusion of human perception and action is examined in urban planning decision support systems that are designed with virtual and tangible interaction. Case studies describing applied scenarios of urban planning are reviewed with a critique of navigation design, human perception, collaboration support, and visualization of decision scenarios. The human factors for designing systems that support clear representations of urban planning states across all sensory modalities are reported.