Textbook of Usability

Also known as: POE

Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is the systematic assessment of a building's performance after it has been occupied and used for some period. It is the architectural equivalent of usability testing — an empirical assessment of whether the design actually works for the people who use it.

POE methods include:

• Occupant surveys — standardised questionnaires measuring satisfaction with indoor environment quality, wayfinding, and space layout
• Behavioural observation — tracking how people actually use spaces (where they sit, which routes they take)
• Environmental measurement — objective data on temperature, humidity, light levels, noise, air quality
• Performance metrics — for clinical buildings, health outcomes, infection rates, falls, injuries

Despite its value, POE is rarely performed in practice. Most buildings are designed, occupied, and then abandoned by the design team, with no systematic feedback on whether the design succeeded. Design failures are repeated in future projects because nobody measured them.

Systematic POE creates a feedback loop that improves design knowledge over time, analogous to the iterative cycle in software development. The designer learns what worked and what didn't, and subsequent projects benefit from that knowledge.

POE is gradually becoming more common in healthcare and institutional architecture, partly driven by the rise of evidence-based design and partly by public procurement requirements that demand accountability. In commercial architecture it remains rare, reflecting the dominance of aesthetic reputation over measured outcomes.

The parallel to software is instructive: software has rapid, cheap iteration and a mature usability testing culture; architecture has slow, expensive iteration and a weak feedback culture. Each field could learn from the other.