Our approach
We try to collect data to high statistical standards, and present them in an interesting and open way. We also try to simplify for those who do not need the detail. This is a delicate balance because we do not know in advance the levels of detail required.
Our results can be used:
On a technical point, we do not normalise data, except in the calculation of the Summary, Comfort and Satisfaction indices where all formulas are shown (in Appendix A).
We think that normalisation (i.e. adjusting results with weightings to try to balance out intrinsic population differences) is ultimately misleading (e.g. between buildings with different proportions of part-time staff, where greater numbers of part-time staff are known to affect ratings favourably - the less time people spend in a building, the more they say they like it!) .
We believe it is better to present raw scores, and normalise only at the final analysis stage, making it completely clear where weightings have been introduced.
It is also worth remembering that buildings in use are extraordinarily complicated, with a host of variables in contexts which are volatile. We try to capture as much of the richness and complexity as we can, without being overwhelmed by too much data.
More on the approach. This is a 156k pdf download of a presentation prepared in 2005 so some of the numbers may be out-of-date.