Identify and prioritize the design factors affecting the social interactions of citizens in urban public squares

Urban Square is one of the most important urban spaces that has long been the bedrock of social life and plays an important role in the social development of citizens. Increasing modern urban living and the expansion of urbanization have led to neglect of the importance of the overall public space for these social interactions. Therefore, it is imperative that urban public spaces respond to the needs of users from different age groups and racial segments and should be designed and implemented accordingly. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the design factors of urban public squares in order to use these spaces in daily life. For this purpose, design factors of urban public spaces were identified by studying books, articles, and previous research. The respondents are chosen from the square’s public users including the city’s inhabitants. The instrument for collecting data (questionnaire) After measuring the validity and reliability was provided to the statistical sample. In the present study, LISREL software has been used to analyze the statistical data through the confirmatory factor analysis technique. The results of factor analysis on 22 urban urban design factors explain the four categories of physical aspects, behavioral and psychological aspects, managerial aspects and geographical aspects in the presented model. The results show that all 22 identified factors have been confirmed and "Managing aspects" with factor load of 0.96 first priority and "behavioral and psychological aspects" with a factor of 0.67 have been identified as the last priority affecting the level of social interaction in the Sabze-Meydan of Bojnourd. Based on this, with attention and better planning on the design of public urban spaces, more productivity of these spaces can be achieved in order to increase the social interactions of citizens.