The post-occupancy evaluation (POE) was divided into two parts: a Web-enabled occupant survey and focus groups of faculty, staff, students, and the building services staff. The wide-ranging evaluation covered how the CCSR design affects the way people work, learn, and collaborate, as well as whether the CCSR contributes to the inspiration, comfort, and safety of its occupants. Some respondents also answered questions about building materials and systems, and wayfinding within the CCSR.

"In most cases, occupants weren't known until well into construction, so we focused on the functional design of the building," says David O'Brien, director of Medical School Institutional Planning for Stanford.

Planning

Strategic Facilities Planning (SFP) did extensive benchmarking beforehand, researching other evaluations and looking at evaluations Stanford had done of previous projects, as well as research on the Web and IFMA's Academic Facilities Council listserv. Benchmarks were hard to find because the CCSR evaluation was one of the first POEs to be completely Web-based.

"We received copies of surveys from other universities around the country, as well as one conducted in Hong Kong," says Amy Delson, AIA, SFP founder and principal. "Other universities had used Web-based surveys hosted by outsourced providers, but no one we found had developed a comprehensive Web site for all the components of the evaluation."

It took approximately one month to program and beta test the survey, which was hosted on CP&M's public servers rather than on an intranet. O'Brien notes that no security issues arose in the process of conducting the POE.

Web Survey

Web survey responses were accepted over a period of two and a half weeks. On average, the survey took approximately 10 minutes to complete. There were 83 questions which posed a statement and asked the respondent to gauge their agreement on a scale of one to five: strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), no opinion (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5). There were also seven text box questions, which asked the respondent to type in a brief answer. No one respondent was expected to answer all 90 questions; some questions were directed to researchers, some to faculty, and some to administrators.

"It's important to have both questions and text boxes in a survey," says Delson. "The responses to the questions translate into quantitative statistical data that can be objectively evaluated. The text box responses provide a more qualitative view. Both views are important to provide a perspective on the building. In this case, the quantitative responses tended to be more positive than the qualitative responses."

Delson notes that future surveys could be designed to display only questions pertaining to the individual's job description.

To encourage response, OFPS handed out flyers around the building and offered prizes (free meals at the Medical School cafeteria) for a few lucky survey takers. Response rate was around 40 percent overall, which both O'Brien and Delson say is significant since the survey was done during the summer.

"Most paper-based surveys have a 33 percent response rate, so 40 percent is good," says Delson, adding that Web-based surveys generally have a higher response rate. She notes that many of the researchers were submitting their surveys well after midnight.

Conducting the survey on the Web increased productivity by allowing data to be collected in real time.

"Most paper surveys require hand tallying which results in errors and takes a great deal of time. We were able to easily monitor the data in Excel," says Delson.

Focus Groups

Focus groups for faculty, staff, and students occurred simultaneously with the Web survey. Separate focus groups were held for building services personnel (Environmental Health & Safety, Housekeeping & Grounds, Operations & Maintenance, Security, and Telecom/Data).

To prepare for the focus groups, representatives of OFPS, CP&M and SFP first conducted a walk-through of the CCSR. Questions for each focus group were then developed during the following two weeks. To keep the discussions on track, questions and digital photos of selected issues were posted on the Web prior to the meetings. Notes were posted directly to the Web site so that participants could see their comments within a day.

The focus groups for students, faculty, and staff centered on functionality and essentially fleshed-out the Web survey questions. Since the Web survey was developed from a user perspective, the focus groups for building services staff primarily addressed issues of specifications: Were the materials, systems, and equipment specified durable and functional? Should they be specified again? This process will inform specifications on future projects.

Lessons Learned

The CCSR POE process took approximately 12 weeks from start to finish. Delson notes that the timeframe was fairly tight given the demands of Web site design, survey question development, and scheduling the focus group meetings.

While Web-enabling the survey provides many efficiencies in tabulating results, it's also important to provide the personnel resources during the preparation phase.

"To keep the process moving, it's important that someone be assigned to it," says O'Brien. "There's a lot of scheduling involved with the focus groups, getting the information out, marketing it, and so on."

By Lee Ingalls