TIPI – Designing for your personality

Ever wondered how you align with your friends and family? One of the things that’s clearest about space design is that everyone feels better when their personality aligns with the place that they find themselves.

But who are you?  Who are those who come and visit or stay with you?

One of the quickest ways to find out is to answer the questions on the TIPI survey developed by Professor Sam Gosling’s working group at the University of Texas.  It is located here.

Take a minute and go and answer the questions on the TIPI—then come back so we can begin a conversation about your score’s design-related repercussions.  If you’re designing for someone else or for a group of people, you can, yourself, answer the TIPI questions for them and consider designing for group averages—with some exceptions noted below—it’s always best if people answer the questions for themselves.

There are three aspects of personality that significantly effect how people use space and how spaces should be designed.  They are how open-to-experience (particularly new experiences) people are, conscientiousness, and, the frequently discussed factor: extraversion-introversion.

If you are familiar with your own personality type, and develop some understanding of the personality types of the heaviest users of the spaces you’re developing, you can get some ideas about how design can make both of your lives better.

The most frequently researched aspect of personality is how extraverted or introverted someone is and estimates of introversion in the population range from 1/3 to ½.   Some highlights of what researchers have learned about introversion-extraversion and design:

• Extraverts are interested in creating spaces that encourage people to socialize, introverts, not so much.
• Extraverts enjoy more sensory-rich and stimulating environments than introverts. They can relish simultaneous energizing colours, scents, sounds, etc.  Introverts not so much.  Research indicates that extraverts don’t do as good a job processing the sensory stimuli they’re exposed to as introverts do, so they do better with more while introverts thrive in environments where sensory experiences are more carefully managed and generally a little calmer overall. There’s some evidence that extraverts may work slightly better in open workplaces than introverts.  Keep in mind that being around other people is pretty energizing for all of us, even if they’re just around and we aren’t even talking to them.
• Extraverts prefer more saturated colours than introverts.
• Extraverts are big fans of open floor plans, many haven’t seen many walls that they wouldn’t rip down with glee. Introverts prefer more segmented interiors, all those walls that extraverts are tearing down introverts would like being moved into their homes.
• Extraverts are sofa people, introverts would prefer to sit on individual chairs. Also, extraverts prefer to be closer to others than introverts do, so an extravert determining how many people will sit on a bench will likely come up with a much higher number than an introvert.
• Extraverts like to talk to other people when there are few barriers between them and the person they’re talking to (for example, no desk/table, or a minimal coffee table), while introverts see no need to skimp on furniture than can be between them and the other them.

People who are more open-to-experience are both more concerned about aesthetics than people who are not and also more likely to favour novel or unusual design options while people who are less open-to-experience like to go with more traditional options.

People who are relatively more conscientious are concerned with living clean, neat, organized, well-maintained (things up to date) lives.  They like to live in worlds where they can stay organized, that they can readily keep clean because durable materials that don’t “show the dirt” are in use, etc. They’re also more likely to favour rectilinear over curvilinear options, in table legs, duvet covers, rug patterns, you name it—although any well-designed space will have at least a few of each.

Being agreeable does seem to have one design implication—but people who sell home goods won’t like it—people who are more agreeable seem to be less materialistic than people who are less agreeable.

It’s unlikely that everyone in your home has the same personality profile.  Make sure there are places in your home where everyone can be comfortable—some retreats for introverts outside bedrooms, for example, and some common areas where oodles of guests can be entertained, for extraverts.  People need to be able to completely relax and fall asleep in bedrooms, so if even one introvert will sleep in a room, make sure surface colours, lighting, textures, etc., are carefully curated there and are calming enough to not overwhelm even the most introverted or introverts.  Sensory stimuli that calm and those that energise are discussed in this article.  Also, remember that you can design at various scales in the same place.  To keep a traditional space from being so boring that a person who is open to experience is stressed, for example, it might be possible to include some unusual/novel objects in that space without sending overall novelty levels so high that people low on openness are overwhelmed—creating compromises means trying things out.  Other “compromises” are “no-brainers”—even though those who are relatively more conscientious really require that a space be ordered, organized, clean, etc., designing to support these desires is not “bad” for the mindset of others—we can all benefit from being in a “fresh” seeming place, but some of us really need to be in this sort of environment and others, not so much.

If you’re creating a space where people will relax, you’ll want to consider these design options, for example, discussed in the articles on this page here.  Among those recommendations:

• Use surface colours that are not very saturated but relatively light, such as a faint smoke-y blue or a sage green that’s heavy on the white pigment.
• Favour curve-y lines in patterns in upholstery or wallpaper, in the forms of furniture, or architectural lines, as discussed here.
• Warm lighting at relatively low levels in floor and table lamps is a great de-compressor—and natural light is always a big plus, so open up those curtains.
• Cut the visual complexity to the level you’d see in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (as discussed here), visual clutter is awful when you want to relax.
• Make your home smell like lemon or orange or lavender or another relaxing scent as discussed here and play a quiet, very quiet nature recording in the background as you go about your life, more details here and here (and search Nature Sound in the search engine).
• Add art, plants, materials, that support cognitive refreshment, as discussed here (and search for Biophilic Design in the search box) And, generally, design biophilically, with seats where people feel protected but have a view out over the nearby area, for example, as reported here.
• Get rid of stuff that “says” the wrong things about you—for example, a country farmhouse style mailbox when you see yourself and your interests as more cosmopolitan. Cuing via design is discussed here.
• Make sure everyone in your home has a “territory” where they can really de-compress, as discussed in this Space Doctors article.