What is Acoustic Horizon

This chapter presents an overview of 3 graphical tools supporting soundscape assessment in different settings, indoors and outdoors. These research prototypes support the spatial organization of the perceptual information available to the participants and are designed based on surveying techniques used in architectural training to create a foundation for acoustic design education in architecture schools. This chapter reports the contexts of the focus groups investigations, presenting advantages and drawbacks related to their use. It has been found that participants often added explanatory verbal data and arrows to the provided diagrams. The diagrams and their use have been interpreted with the support of the qualitative data captured along the studies through thematic analysis. Finally, paper prototypes are useful for educational approaches, but future more comprehensive studies will require integrating these tools in existing or yet-to-be-designed systematic frameworks for soundscape analysis and design.