Book excerpt: Post-occupancy evaluation, focusing on building’s occupants and their needs, provides insight into the consequences of past design decisions and forms a sound basis for creating better buildings in the future. This book, first published in 1988, includes a review of the evolution of the field, a conceptual frame-work for POE, and pragmatic information on planning, conducting, and reporting POEs. Post-Occupancy Evaluation categorizes the approaches to building evaluation by describing the three levels of POE effort – indicative, investigative, and diagnostic, each differing in terms of time, resources, and personnel needed. In its scope Post-Occupancy Evaluation is both comprehensive and specific; professionals in the design and planning disciplines will find it an invaluable resource for understanding the theory behind POE’s and the procedures needed to put the theory into practice.