Merely “Design Marketing”? Professional Perspectives on the Use and Misuse of Environmental Visualizations in Community Engagement

Environmental visualizations can improve the publics’ understanding of spatial information and enhance dialogue during community engagement. By interviewing and surveying planning and design professionals, this study examines motivations for using environmental visualizations in community engagement. Professionals recognize the communicative benefits of environmental visualizations, but also acknowledge that they are sometimes used to constrain public debate by enhancing project imagibility. This article contributes to a critical assessment of the ethical use of environmental visualization by exploring techniques and practices that can create misinformation within community engagement. Overall findings contribute to a clearer understanding of environmental visualizations as a form of design marketing.