How Digital Urban’s Place CoPilot is transforming the way urban developers find trusted answers to their questions – saving time and delivering better outcomes for all
The challenge:
Making design codes more user-friendly
Like the majority of local authorities in the UK, Surrey County Council had a problem with their design codes. But it wasn’t with the documents themselves. These are detailed and carefully curated sources of valuable information for urban developers, and other stakeholders, created with the purpose of ensuring they adhere to the correct local planning standards.
Instead, the issue was with the accessibility of those codes. The length and necessary detail in each document makes it challenging for developers to locate the answers they need to specific planning questions.
This often results in many hours of work, for both developers and anyone fielding queries, that could be spent on higher value tasks. There is also the risk of the codes not being correctly adhered to if answers are difficult to locate – which could lead to legal reviews, challenges from the planning committees, or all manner of other headaches.
Therefore, Surrey asked us to find a way to make design codes more accessible to developers in a user-friendly way, with answers that could be fully trusted by all stakeholders.
The solution:
Using digital technology to deliver trusted answers through close collaboration
To find a solution to this challenge, we turned to artificial intelligence (AI).
We developed Place CoPilot, a tool that uses AI to search the relevant design code documentation – and only that documentation – to swiftly find answers to users’ questions. Once those answers are pinpointed, it shows exactly where they are sourced, so the user can have complete trust in their accuracy.
The tool is very easy to use, quick to implement and can be customised to a local authority’s specific environment. For example, it can be ‘white labelled’ as an embed on a council’s website and programmed to sift through information contained only in its own design codes and other regulations.
To develop this solution, once we had received the initial brief, we immediately embarked on a highly collaborative process with Surrey County Council.
The first step was to ensure we fully understood the nature of the challenges the council and its clients were facing, and could develop an accurate picture of who the users would be.
We also consulted and collaborated with other local authorities to ensure we had correctly validated the problems we were trying to solve and be certain that the solution we developed would be applicable beyond the borders of Surrey.
Once we had a clear understanding of who these people and organisations are – primarily urban developers who were seeking clarity on specific design code regulations – we were able to begin work on the AI-powered solution.
One major consideration was that, because the solution was AI-driven, users would need to have complete faith in the accuracy of the answers – as mistrust in AI is common. For example, anyone who has used the likes of ChatGPT will be aware of the seemingly credible ‘hallucinations’ – or incorrect facts or statements – that it can generate.
For that reason, we only allow the tool to supply answers drawn from the information in the design codes and other documents we give it – and it always clearly shows where it has sourced that information.
We also understood that design codes are specific to a defined geographical area, meaning there had to be a spatial element to the solution, so that the rules are interpreted correctly for each location.
Once we had a proof of concept ready, we were quickly able to begin testing with our partners at Surrey and the urban developers with whom they were working. This helped us to identify various issues and find solutions or workarounds and enabled us to produce a working prototype, continually following an agile and iterative process of development.
Throughout the project, transparency between ourselves and Surrey has been paramount. At Digital Urban, we always emphasise the value of open and collaborative work, as well as using agile development principles, because we believe these are the best ways to arrive at an effective solution that genuinely solves our client’s problem, in the fastest way possible.
The outcomes:
Time saved, adherence boosted, relationships improved
The project is still ongoing and Surrey is now piloting our tool. As part of this, we are applying multiple metrics to measure the solution’s performance and continually develop improvements.
First and foremost, the amount of time saved will be critical – and we are confident that this is already happening as developers no longer need to wade through pages of documents to find 100-per-cent accurate answers to their queries.
We are also expecting many secondary benefits, such as increased adherence to design codes and, overall, better designed urban environments.
Moving forwards, because the tool is easy to use, we are confident that our focus on good user experiences will help to foster good relationships between local authorities and the developers with whom they work.
The tool could even be used by the local community as a means of supporting authorities in their mission to create high-quality urban environments. Again, this could lead to greatly improved relationships and enhanced trust between local communities and those who serve them.
We will be keeping a close eye on all these metrics and plan to collaborate with a number of additional local authorities to make the tool as valuable as possible to those who deploy and use it.
To find out more about how it can support you with your design code challenges and transform the way you work with urban developers, get in touch now.
