6 different cities where new participation approaches
using Transition Management and iGUESS were dis-
cussed. Stakeholders had various backgrounds in-
cluding urban planners, GIS technicians, social scien-
tists, engineers, energy experts, and companies pro-
viding energy related services. All of them have al-
ready participated in or even organised bottom up par-
ticipatory urban planning workshops. The GTUI was
presented to them as a new type of interface and tool
to explore opportunities for renewable energy sources
in their cities.
To obtain insights on the potential advantages and
disadvantages of such a tool, an anonymous question-
naire was distributed to each participant. It asked
participants to imagine a participatory workshop with
stakeholders aiming for sustainable urban planning
in their city, and the use of the tangible table within
the scope of that workshop. The questionnaire holds
six statements about potential differences in the group
dynamics and work practices:
1. Stakeholders will communicate differently.
2. Stakeholders will participate more actively.
3. It will be easier to understand the maps and layers.
4. Stakeholders will discuss longer before reaching
a consensus.
5. Stakeholders will collaborate more.
Each of these statements could be judged using a
five point rating scale (i.e., 1 corresponds to strongly
disagree,..., 5 corresponds to strongly agree; range
[1, 5]), with the possibility to leave a comment in an
additional space. Further, three open questions were
asked about the major advantage, the major disadvan-
tage, as well as envisioned next features.
1. What, in your opinion is the major advantage of
the tool?
2. What is the major disadvantage?
3. Which features would you like the next version to
support?
14 participants filled in the questionnaire and pro-
vided a total of 113 comments. Using the approach
of thematic analysis, the comments were studied and
grouped to identify relevant themes describing char-
acteristics of the tool.
All participants agreed about their feeling that
stakeholders will communicate differently (M = 4.50,
SD = 0.52), will participate more actively (M = 4.36,
SD = 0.75) and will collaborate more (M = 4.07, SD
= 0.62). Further, participants agreed that stakeholders
will better understand the maps (M = 4.29, SD = 0.73)
and be more satisfied with the outcome (M = 4.18, SD
= 0.54).
Regarding the time it requires to reach a consen-
sus, participants had differing views or did not know
(M = 3.07, SD = 0.92). P3 and P14, for instance, ex-
pect stakeholders to discuss longer, but P3 sees this
positively as the stakeholders will get more informa-
tion. P4 and P5, on the other hand, rather think that
the discussion process will get shorter and that a so-
lution will be found faster. P1, P2, P9, P10, P11, P12,
and P13 specifically mention that they do not know
and that several options are possible.
Our analysis of the qualitative data has revealed
five themes that participants consider as particularly
interesting. The GTUI uses maps to display data and
information. Participants consider this as an impor-
tant visual aid, providing a new type of overview
(P2), which is more understandable. They expect that
this will create increased satisfaction as “[...] the out-
come will be based on the facts of the map.” How-
ever, they also mention that maps can be difficult to
understand in case they represent very technical data
(P12,13).
A second aspect mentioned by participants is the
high interactivity of the GTUI, “[making it] easier
to understand the underlying links between data [...]”
and allowing stakeholders to express themselves in a
clear way (P11). This is assumed to generate more
discussions (P5). P11, however, also mentions the
need of having a sufficient number of layers in or-
der to be able to see the discussed issue “[...] from
different perspectives [...]”.
Multiple participants mention that they expect
stakeholders to be more active while using the table.
On one hand they explain this by the circumstance
that users will be standing (P5,9,13) instead of sit-
ting. P13 even goes further, explaining that the stand-
ing configuration will create a more informal situation
(P13). On the other hand, participants are referring to
the fact that GTUIs are based on physical manipula-
tions and, hence, require a more active disposition to
be operated. P5: “You have to be more active anyway,
working with the map/table to see the different layers,
zooming in [...]”
Another theme deals with the support for playful
interactions. Participants describe it as a “motivative
tool” (P10), being easy to use (P6,8,12,14), and re-
moving “fear of technology” (P6). They explain this
by the playful nature of the tangible table: “The table
looks like a game with all the layer pieces [...]” (P11).
A final series of comments deals with the in-
creased collaboration around the table, supported by
a common, shared space. This space allows every-
body to participate, try out options, and influence the
data (P1,3,4,5,6,12,14). More specifically they as-
sume the particular form of the table to be beneficial
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