Measuring the Qualitative Visual Streetscapes Experience of People Using the Customer Experience Management (CEM) Method; Case Study: Karim Khan Zand Street, Shiraz

Introduction and Goal of Research:

 In recent decades, the protection of visual streetscapes has been raised as one of the most important issues in the field of heritage of historic cities. The streetscape of Karim Khan Zand Street, Shiraz is one of the most valuable ones for which not only a protection plan has not been prepared but it has been seriously threatened by the continuation of the current trend. On the other hand, from the past to the present, measuring the quality of visual streetscapes by referring to the characteristics has been one of the most important urban design concerns. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to measure the quality experience of the person presents in the space from the street perspective using the customer experience management method, that according to this method, the person is as a customer who encounters the space as a commodity.

Method of Research: 

In order to achieve the goal of the research, the conversion of quality not into quantity but into more tangible and comprehensible components that can be measured quantitatively or geographically, a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches has been used. In order to advance the research, the five experiences of individuals from the study space have been analyzed using the questioning technique of the statistical population of the study population, including space actors, residents and merchants. In the next step, writing interviews, extracting data codes, evaluating the five layers of customer experience, touch points and modeling human activity, and scoring a variety of integrated visual streetscapes analysis experiences based on the Likert scale were performed, respectively.

The results indicate that the first spatial sequence of the street with an average score of 5.4 compared to the second sequence with a score of 5 is in a better condition and the experience of action (with a score of 6.5), sensory experience (with a score of 5.5), emotional experience and communication experience (with a score of 5) and finally thinking experience with a score of 4, have the highest score in this street.

According to the statistical population and the inferences of the researchers, the contact points identified in both sequences are in two very effective and relatively effective categories, which include the space related to the gathering of people, memorable functions and the first activities started in Shiraz. With the aim of improving the current state of the street, strategies such as preparing the way for social interactions, creating harmony between the body and the historic space and contemporary changes in it to meet the needs of today's citizens, providing suitable conditions for using space in different times of the day and night for different categories of society and to facilitate movement in the public sphere for all individuals.