Indicator

Indicators

Indicators are the themes for which targets exist in a 3D World. They are named after Key Performance Indicators, by which organizations evaluate their success. Key Performance Indicators serve as a means to identify potential improvements, and as a metric for the degree to which those improvements have been successful.

See also the F.A.Q. webinar for an explanation about Indicators.

How indicators relate to the Tygron Platform

Indicators are a primary part of your project, and serve as the guiding element by which users can determine whether they are making progress. Just like Key Performance Indicators, indicators in the Tygron Platform serve as a means to identify how to improve the situation for your stakeholder, and to what degree those improvements are affected by specific actions. By having the right indicators in a project, users are encouraged to take actions which would match the actions of the stakeholder in real life, and to quickly recognize the effects actions have on their own goals and the goals of other stakeholders.

Indicators in the Tygron Platform

Indicators are visible at the top of the interface. Each indicator is represented by a short name, and (with exception of the budget) is accompanied by a small progress bar to indicate how well you are performing on that indicator.

Each indicator has a name, a description, a color and a target. The target is the most important part of the indicator, because that is what drives a stakeholder to perform (or abstain from) an action. Each action a stakeholder takes is meant to advance their indicators.

Indicators and their relation to stakeholders

It is not necessarily so that each Stakeholder has access to each indicator. Indicators which are not relevant to a stakeholder should not be displayed. For example, a project developer has very specific business driven goals, which differ from (or even conflict with) the goals of a municipality. The indicators can be adjusted for every stakeholder individually and for the common goals the targets and weight of the indicator differ. So it is possible that two stakeholders have the same goal, green for example and in this case, for the municipality it is more important to take action on implementing green than it is for the project developer. The difference in weight of the indicators can be adjusted in the indicator weights.

For more information on adding and removing indicators to stakeholders, see stakeholders.

The top bar of the interface. The indicators that are implemented in this example are Budget, Green and Building.

Indicator types

A number of indicators are available in the Tygron Platform. The available indicators are listed below. Some of these indicators already perform specific calculations and can be directly used in the project, but they also can be modified and extended with customized calculations. It is also possible to implement your own indicators with your own defined calculations. This can be done for the Excel indicator. Because the Excel indicator is initially empty, it requires more work to set up, but also allows for more flexibility through customization.

Stakeholder specific indicators

This is an indicator that is specifically linked to a certain stakeholder. When you add this indicator it will only be visible for the stakeholder you add it to. For Example the Budget indicator only shows the budget amount for the specific stakeholder and it's target. After all, the budget of a stakeholder can differ and is a personal goal.

Type	Main Article	Description
Budget	Budget (Indicator)	The amount of money available to a stakeholder. Most actions in the Tygron Platform require money by default. Actions which require spending more money than the stakeholder has available are sometimes allowed. However, should the stakeholder end up with a negative budget, their final score will be zero until their budget turns positive.
Building	Building (Indicator)	The amount of buildings that a stakeholder wishes to reach. The targets for this indicator are subdivided into different types of buildings, such as luxury housing, offices, green and leisure. This indicator is unique in that a stakeholder will be penalized for exceeding their goal. Buildings are measured in units or by floor space.

Shared indicators

This is an indicator that is available for multiple stakeholders. When you add this indicator it will be visible for all stakeholders unless you remove it from a specific stakeholder. For Example the Green indicator shows the amount of green in the entire project area and is the same amount for all stakeholders. The weight and the target of the indicator can differ per stakeholder and that is how you can indicate the difference of this goal per stakeholder.

Type	Main Article	Description
Green	Green (Indicator)	The Green indicator calculates a rating for the amount of green space per residence, measured per neighborhood. More trees and open (grassland) areas increase the score for green. More residence buildings and concrete decrease the score for green.
Heat Stress	Heat (Indicator)	Heat stress is the amount of green and water in an area versus the paved surfaces. More trees and open water areas increase the score for Heat stress. Buildings and concrete decrease the score for Heat stress.
Parking	Parking (Indicator)	Parking is the amount of parking spaces in an area. Many buildings have an associated need for parking spaces nearby. By building parking facilities, the score on the Parking Indicator can be increased.
Livability	Livability (Indicator)	Livability is the extent to which an area is pleasant to live in. More open spaces, luxury buildings and green increase livability. Densification, poor quality buildings and lack of nature decrease Livability.
Traffic NO2	Traffic NO2 (Indicator)	The number of buildings that has trouble with a too high concentration of NO2 due to the traffic in that particular area.
Traffic Noise	Traffic NO2 (Indicator)	The number of buildings that has trouble with a too high concentration of NO2 due to the traffic in that particular area.
Excel Indicator	Excel (Indicator)	This is an indicator which calculates a score and explanation using a Microsoft Excel file. This file can be written locally and uploaded to the Tygron Platform. In order to obtain information from a running session on the Tygron Platform, a query language has been developed. By using the 'named cell' functionality of Microsoft Excel, information can be sent back and forth to the Tygron Platform.

Index indicators

You can also get indicators in the Tygron Index. Here you can download indicators that are created by several Tygron Platform users and/or upload your own indicators. For the up to date overview of available indicators on our Index please check the Index page or enter the Index from the Community hub in your project. A brief overview of indicators in the Index is given below. All indicators on the Index have a page with an additional explanation on the wiki which indicates if you need to add or edit something to your project when you download and use the new indicator. For Example some indicators make use of multiple Globals, an Overlay or Areas that needs to be implemented in order for the indicator to work.

Influencing Indicators

During a session, users are able to influence Indicators by taking actions. Almost every action has an effect on at least one Indicator. It is up to the users to apply their actions appropriately to increase the score on their Indicators. It is important to note that the effects of an action may extend to Indicators which are not relevant to the acting stakeholder. For example, if a project developer creates a large office park where there previously was a forest, the amount of green will go down, which will negatively affect the goals of a municipality.

Indicator targets

The most important aspect of an Indicator is its target. By working towards reaching the target of an Indicator, a stakeholder can increase the total team score. Reaching their Indicator targets is the reason stakeholders perform actions. When a stakeholder has reached the target for a specific Indicator, they no longer need to perform actions for that specific target. Most projects have a balance wherein it is difficult, but not impossible, to reach the targets for all Indicators. Together with the Indicator weight and a stakeholder's assignment, they form a stakeholders objective.