Post occupancy evaluation for urban open spaces: An emprical study on waterfront pedestrian streets in İzmir

Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is defined as the systematic evaluation of built environments from user`s perspective. POEs are used to identify ways to improve the quality of physical environment, to increase comfort and productivity of users, to reduce design and maintenance costs.This study aims to carry out a POE of urban open spaces for defining user-centered design guidelines for similar areas. In this study, a POE was conducted on two important waterfronts in Izmir, Turkey (Mustafa Kemal Waterfront Pedestrian Road (MKWPR) and Bostanlı Waterfront Pedestrian Road (BWPR). The two waterfronts were similar in length. They differed in some physical features. To understand users? behavior and satisfaction we used observations and surveys. Sixteen hours of observations were done in two weeks in April 2006. 923 users were observed. The users` demographic information and the activity the user was involved at the time of observation was recorded. Two surveys were done in the study area; the first one contains the physical evaluation of 4 planners, the second one contains the user information collected from 40 users in terms of user demographics, activities, evaluation of physical features, satisfaction, and overall feeling of the area. Results showed that the two settings differed in users?(1) density (2) activity (3) satisfaction. Design guidelines developed with this study can be used to guide the future planning and design decisions of similar areas and method of this study can guide subsequent POEs of open spaces.