a tool for judging good and bad public spaces

This diagram is taken from a website called Projects for Public Space (PPS).  PPS was founded in 1975 to expand on the work of William H. Whyte, the author of the book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Throughout the course of their work, PPS has evaluated thousands of public spaces and have come to understand that all successful public spaces share four common attributes that you see here, highlighted in orange on the diagram. In considering the future development of the oval, this is a useful tool for measuring the current qualities of the space that make it a success, as well as the aspects of the space that are problematic. Considering all of qualities of the space, both good and bad offers an informed understanding from which to design.