EDAC key terms

A decision-making process in which design choices are grounded in the best available research and project-specific evidence, and outcomes are measured afterward to inform future projects.

A documented argument that compares the expected costs of a design investment with expected financial and nonfinancial returns, used to win funding and approval from owners and executives.

The total expense of a facility or system over its useful life, including construction, operation, maintenance, replacement, and disposal, rather than the initial outlay alone.

The initial capital expense of designing and constructing a facility, which excludes the ongoing operating, staffing, and maintenance costs that often dominate long-run spending.

A ratio expressing net benefit relative to the money spent, used in design business cases to show how an upfront investment may be repaid through lower operating or clinical costs.

A broad statement of a desired end state for a project, expressed without a specific threshold, which is later made concrete through measurable objectives.

A specific, measurable, time-bound statement derived from a goal that defines what a project will accomplish and how success will be judged.

A testable prediction that a specific design feature will produce a specified effect on a defined outcome for a defined group of users.

A metric selected in advance to track progress toward a project objective, such as falls per 1,000 patient days or annual staff turnover rate.

Broad value statements agreed with stakeholders about what a project should achieve and protect, which steer design decisions and are made specific through goals and objectives.

A ranking of study designs by how vulnerable they are to bias, usually placing systematic reviews and randomized trials above cohort studies, case reports, and expert opinion.

A structured synthesis that uses an explicit, reproducible search strategy and preset inclusion criteria to find, appraise, and summarize all relevant studies on a focused question.

A statistical method that pools results from several comparable studies into one quantitative estimate of effect, improving precision when the studies are similar enough to combine.

An experiment in which participants are randomly assigned to an intervention or comparison condition, reducing selection bias and strengthening causal conclusions about the intervention's effect.

An observational design that follows a defined group over time and compares outcomes between people exposed and not exposed to a factor of interest.

An in-depth account of a single project or setting, valuable for illustrating mechanisms and generating hypotheses but weak for establishing cause and effect.

An outside factor linked to both the exposure and the outcome that distorts the apparent relationship between them unless the study design or analysis accounts for it.

The degree to which findings from one study's population, setting, or time period reasonably apply to other contexts, including a different design project.

Reports and research not issued by commercial publishers, such as government reports, conference papers, theses, and internal project evaluations, often relevant but inconsistently peer reviewed.

The structured judgment of a study's validity, results, and relevance to a local decision, weighing its design, sample, measurement, and analysis.

A framework for building a searchable question from Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome, which helps structure a literature search for a design decision.

A matrix summarizing each source's citation, design, population, key findings, and relevance, letting a team compare studies and trace evidence to specific design decisions.

A specific physical or operational change made in a setting, such as added daylight or decentralized nursing stations, whose effects on outcomes are predicted and then tested.

A full-scale physical or virtual model of a room or area used with users to test size, layout, and features before construction, catching problems while changes are still inexpensive.

A fixed limit on a project, such as budget, building code, site conditions, or schedule, that determines which evidence-supported design solutions are actually feasible.

A systematic assessment of a building after it is occupied, comparing measured performance and user feedback against the project's stated objectives to inform operations and future projects.

Measurements collected before a design change or move, providing the comparison point for judging whether outcomes improved afterward.

Using several methods, data sources, or investigators to examine the same question, which raises confidence when the separate results point to the same conclusion.

The consistency of a measurement, meaning that repeated administrations, raters, or occasions produce similar results under the same conditions.

The extent to which a measurement or study truly captures or demonstrates what it claims to, covering construct, internal, and external forms.

A structured observation method that records where people are and what they are doing at set intervals, producing a picture of how a space is actually used.

A facilitated group discussion with a small number of carefully selected participants, used to explore perceptions, needs, and reactions to proposed design ideas.

A survey response format that asks people to rate their agreement or satisfaction along an ordered set of options, such as strongly disagree through strongly agree.

An independent committee that reviews research involving human participants before data collection to protect participants' rights, safety, and privacy.

An intensive, time-limited collaborative workshop where stakeholders and designers work side by side to generate, test, and refine design options.

Any person or group affected by or able to influence a project, such as patients, families, staff, owners, and regulators, whose knowledge and needs shape design decisions.

A senior leader who actively backs an evidence-based design effort, providing authority, resources, and persistence needed to carry it through all project phases.

The planned sharing of a project's goals, methods, and measured results with internal and external audiences so others can reuse the lessons.

The process of moving research findings into practical use by adapting them to a specific context and supporting the people who will apply them.