Developing an Interactive Data Collection Tool to Determine the Households' Needs for Dwelling Elements According to Their Financial Capability in the City of Riyadh

The confusion between 'desires' and 'needs' by participants in housing research studies yields a problem of misleading data that many researchers face. Since conventional tools, such as survey questionnaires and interviews, enable the researcher to determine the participants' households' real needs, the study aims to develop an interactive data collection tool based on computer gaining and simulation techniques. This interactive tool will enable collecting data about households' real needs for dwelling elements, within their financial ability. Hence, an interactive computer program was designed to enable the participants to adjust their selections of dwelling's elements, their number and their sizes, to be within the participants' financial ability. Furthermore, the program was fed with specific data for use by Saudi households looking to own a house in the city of Riyadh. The specific data that represent the variables of the case study can easily be modified, so that the tool can be used for other communities.