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Design+ Building code app benefits for designers

Table 3. (Continued)
Parameters/ Themes Codes Example
questions
Swimming pools “A couple of our projects had rooftop swimming pools, so we had to do codes
concerning the three-foot depth and the construction.”
Ada restrooms “I would go to the ADA guidelines and double check a restroom, for example, what
are the requirements for grab bars in a shower? How many? What’s the height, for
placement, what are the length requirements? And go through those types of details.”
Universities Review and permits “So, any project on campus, when it comes to us for building review and stuff like
that, we’re the one that issues the actual building permit.”
Jurisdiction “Yeah, the way the university works is the university has its own authority having
jurisdiction.”
Permits “When they submit the permit, they have to submit drawings with it.”
Occupancy load “A lot of times they like to play with the numbers, because if they can get the
occupant load down, for some reason, that changes the bathroom count.”
Work experience Satisfaction Enjoyment “I enjoy finding answers right away when I can.”
related to building Accomplishment “From the moment you start building and then you go through and check it, and
code your codes are correct, it was just like, there was that sense of, like, I did it right.”

Employer building Physical code book Tangibility “My employer likes to physically touch the code book.”
code experience Efficiency “Just because sometimes it’s easier to find things in a physical capacity, as opposed
to endlessly searching and scrolling online.”
Frustration about
building codes
Book edition “The city team, I think they just switched to 28 ...there’s been some issues with that.”
th
Finding information “Try to find something and you’re not able to find it right away.”
Misleading language “Sometimes the language of the code is misleading, or it can be interpreted multiple
ways, and sometimes that can lead to frustration, too.”
Dissatisfaction with “Designers do not want to carry books or check websites.”
resources
Fix issues “The frustration also kicked in when there was something that came up, and you’re
like, oh, like, I have to fix that in one of the projects.”
Looking up Apps Unaware “Honestly have not, but I wasn’t necessarily familiar that something like that would
building code apps be out there, so I guess I didn’t know to search for it.”
Opportunities “But if there was an opportunity to use one, it’s not something I would turn away
from.”
Advantages “I think I would look into it and see what the advantages of using it would be.”
Existing resources Physical code book “I didn’t access anything other than the physical book.”
Online “Maybe references from online that kind of clarified what needed to be exact in
these codes.”
Excel sheets “Some designers created Excel sheets that are not currently updated.”
Manual calculations “Most of our occupancy determinations, especially for classrooms and renovations
like that, you’re probably somewhere 15–20 min of going through the book,
verifying the number, and then doing all the calculations.”
Miscalculated Misinterpretation of “The way that the city interpreted it was different than how my boss was
building codes codes interpreting, and it could, honestly, it could have gone either way.”
Occupancy load “He also called again a couple times about the group rooms, where, again, the
occupancy load was just too high, so we had to rearrange the design to make sure
that they met those codes.”
Modifications Adjustments “It was about 600 plus units... and it was three buildings... but yeah, so we had to
rearrange all three buildings to match that same height.”
(Cont'd...)

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2025) 9 doi: 10.36922/DP025190025