Interactive contact interface elements and correlations with social behavior in historic commercial streets: a study of Qushuiting Street, Jinan

As China transitions from rapid urbanization to prioritizing high-quality development, creating sociable streets has become essential. These are spaces designed to encourage interactions among people and their environment, which is crucial for the revitalization of historic districts. This study examines the relationship between “sociability” and interactive elements within historic commercial streets, focusing on identifying key “interface factors” that influence social dynamics. Jinan’s Qushuiting Street was selected as the subject of this study. Survey and behavioral mapping methods were employed to assess interactive contact interface as independent variables, including façade opening, D/H, structural shelter, plant shelter, commercial overflow, seating overflow, and social nexus points. SPSS was employed for multiple regression analysis to examine the correlations between these interface variables and the dependent variable, the sociability index. The findings indicate strong positive correlations between sociability and commercial overflow, seating overflow, and social nexus points. Additionally, plant shelter and structural shelter show a certain positive correlation with the sociability index. This research quantitatively evaluates the sociability of historic commercial streets and identifies key contributing factors, providing scientific guidelines for enhancing street vitality, increasing social interactivity, and securing effective urban and street design strategies.