Village placemaking research

Business challenge

Our client (a county council) wanted to gain a greater understanding of the community’s needs and requirements for the future of a local village.

  • What is draws in residents, businesses and visitors
  • The journeys, routes and pathways that are currently being used
  • Feedback on different infrastructure proposals

What we did

We did some qualitative research (with graphic interviews) speaking to 46 respondents (mixture of business owners, residents and visitors). The qualitative approach consisted of 4 stages conducted over 1 hour:

  1. Group interview to get initial thoughts
  2. Village immersion – walk around the village with individual moderators
  3. Depth interview – with maps of proposal ideas
  4. Group interview – pull different ideas together

Outcome

We were able to provide the county council with advice on what infrastructure solutions worked well and not so well and for whom. It was the first step of many in a program to improve the village.