Towards satisfying practitioners in using Planning Support Systems

•A user test was performed to evaluate 3 Planning Support Systems (PSS).•The test confirmed the mismatch between PSS functionality and what planning practitioners expect.•This paper provides important indications for designing PSS that can satisfy needs and desires of practitioners.•We recommend to develop PSS according to the Human-Centred Design model.

Several Planning Support Systems (PSS) have been developed so far, but their uptake in planning practice remains low. The analysis of the literature shows that one major factors for the limited use of PSS is the mismatch between PSS functionality (as well as the way it is provided through the PSS user interface) and what planners expect. This motivated a deeper research with the objective to analyse the factors preventing a wider use of PSS. In particular, this paper focuses on the usability of PSS. It reports an evaluation study performed to investigate the usability of PSS for some specific tasks: planners were involved in testing the land suitability analysis module of three PSS. The study results confirmed the mismatch between what PSS provide and what planners expect, as well as indicated a poor usability of PSS. Indications for improving the design of PSS that satisfy needs and desires of practitioners are provided.