From user feedback to design decisions: how workplace design practice interprets user evidence

Purpose This study aims to investigate why validated post-occupancy evaluation (POE) tools remain marginal in workplace design practice despite their widespread availability and the growing emphasis on evidence-based workplace decision-making. While previous research has identified barriers to POE adoption, less is known about how workplace practitioners collect, interpret and translate user-related information into workplace design decisions. Design/methodology/approach Sixteen semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with workplace designers, architects and workplace consultants operating primarily in Germany. Interviews explored project workflows, methods for understanding user needs, questionnaire use and approaches to translating user feedback into design decisions. Data were analysed using an inductive qualitative coding process. Findings Workspace design operates through interpretive and narrative forms of reasoning rather than standardised evaluation. Workshops and conversations dominated user engagement, while questionnaires served communicative rather than analytical purposes. The study identifies an “interpretation gap”: the absence of frameworks that help practitioners translate evaluation outputs into concrete spatial decisions, causing user feedback to remain disconnected from design action despite practitioners’ genuine interest in evidence. Research limitations/implications The study draws on a qualitative sample of 16 practitioners, providing analytical rather than statistical generalisation. Future research should test these patterns in larger samples and develop methods that better support the translation of user feedback into spatial design decisions. Practical implications The findings suggest that improving workplace evaluation practice requires more than increasing the availability of measurement tools. Future POE approaches should focus on interpretive usability by providing mechanisms that connect user feedback to workplace planning and design decisions. In addition, organisations commissioning workplace projects may strengthen organisational learning by embedding POE within project governance and ensuring that evaluation findings inform subsequent workplace strategies and project briefs. Originality/value This study contributes to workplace design and corporate real estate research by introducing the concept of the interpretation gap, describing the disconnect between evaluation outputs and workplace design action. While previous research has documented the limited uptake of POE tools and identified barriers to their adoption, this study explains why evaluation data often fails to influence design decisions even when it is available. By linking theories of reflective practice and design cognition with empirical evidence from workplace professionals, the study offers a new perspective on the relationship between workplace evaluation and design practice.