Worthy Waiting Areas – the Long Read

There are times when it seems that most of our lives are being spent waiting for something (for example, an appointment) or someone.  Design can make waiting much more pleasant, and lots of research has gone into the details of how.  Many of these studies have been done in dentists’ waiting rooms, dentists know you hate visiting them and get stressed doing so.  Research done specifically in dentists offices have shown that we’re calmer, happier waiters, and much less anxious, when we smell oranges (the fruit) and see fish swimming in a tank.

People do a range of things in waiting spaces, but it’s generally best if they’re relaxing places to be, and designing for relaxation is discussed in this article. Often, we work there as well, so principles of good workplace design (discussed here), are also relevant in waiting areas.

People who design waiting rooms are keen to send you the right messages, silently/nonverbally.  They know that humans trust the messages sent via design elements, architecture, artworks, etc., more than they do any statements made about organization values, guiding principles.  Design is really, putting your money where your mouth is (or whatever the organization specific form of this phrase is).  Groups that purport to care about the future, need signage in their waiting areas indicating that they’ve built in an environmentally responsible way; people supporting diversity of some sort need art created by members of supported groups; organizations trading on a long period providing a particular service need some reminder of that (the most direct of which could be the obvious, but effective, use of black and white photographs), you get the idea. Similarly, rest rooms off waiting rooms need to be well maintained and initially designed in ways that indicate care/respect for users.  In places where it can be harder to assess the quality of service provided, for example, a law clinic, all this nonverbal signaling is important, particularly messages related to concern for clients (such as how clean a space seems to be).

Waiting room research has had the following sorts of design implications:

• Shades of blue predominate in waiting rooms because many, many cultures link blues to dependability, trustworthiness, and competence. There are few organizations for which these sorts of associations aren’t a plus.

• Waiting areas are intentionally designed with extra seats. We use empty seats to regulate how densely packed an area is and generally feel most comfortable, less stressed, when no more than 60% to 70% of the available seats are in use.
• The most popular seats in a waiting room, and the ones whose users feel most comfortable and stress-free are those with a view of the door of the space and across the room itself, from a position that seems secure. A space will seem secure to a person when there’s a wall behind them (full height is best, but shorter walls can do in a pinch) or a plant behind them or a piece of furniture (such as a credenza in use in a neighboring space) behind them or they’re sitting in a seat with a back that’s roughly even with the top of their chair.  Not only seats in a waiting room can have this sort of secure view, but some should.  Everyone in a waiting space needs to feel that they’re in a territory that they control, as they do when they’re sitting in a seat with arms, and in this era some of those seats need to be pretty wide as our population gets tubbier and tubbier.  Also, we like to feel in control over our environment, even as we wait, so chairs that can be shifted slightly, options for where to sit in the first place, the ability to sit away from music or a TV if desired, seats that allow different postures (feet up on an ottoman or not, for instance), etc., can help keep up the spirits of people waiting.
• Waiting rooms also need to have a couple of green leafy plants in view (no more; we’re friendlier, more relaxed, and more likely to be mentally refreshed when we can see one or two plants) and be bathed in glare-free natural light—and artificial plants “work” just fine, as long as they’re good “fakes,” the kind you have to reach out to touch to see if they’re real. People are more relaxed in relatively warmer light that’s coming from table top or floor lamps, so that’s generally the best sort of artificial light to complement daylight.

• Time seems to pass more slowly in warm colored spaces than cooler colored ones, so waiting areas should feature cooler shades. We are, however, drawn toward warm colored surfaces and to light (like moths!).  A warm color behind a reception desk can draw us to it, but it’s best if that warm wall can’t be seen by people waiting.  If the wall behind the reception desk will inevitably be seen by people waiting, people designing waiting rooms need to use light to draw people to a reception desk when “checking in” is important.
• When we see more organic shapes, in 2-dimensions in patterns and in 3-dimensions in the shapes of furniture, etc. (for example, a vase or a sofa arm that’s gently curved and rolled is a more organic shape than one that’s crisply tailored to a precise rectilinear shape with nearly knife sharp creases where surfaces meet), we think “comfortable” are indeed more comfortable. That’s one of the reasons you’re likely to see so many chairs and sofas with gently undulating backs and upholstery/wall coverings/rugs/etc. with undulating or paisley-esque or leaf-like patterns, for instance, when you’re waiting. Straight lines are linked to efficiency and functionality, so they’re great for laundry rooms and waiting rooms where people will spend fleeting moments, by plan.
• Looking at wood grain reduces stress levels, one of the reasons that you’ll see it in many waiting areas—because who’s ever spent less time in a waiting room than they wanted to (except before oral surgery, when any sane person would clearly prefer to spend the rest of their life in the waiting room than to go in to the surgery suite).
• Waiting rooms need some “focal points,” somethings or another to which people waiting can gracefully divert their gaze, as needed, to keep eye contact levels comfortable. These focal elements might be a stressbusting fish tank (discussed earlier), a piece of sculpture, a plant, or something similar that is in the open, amongst the people waiting—if the focal element is way off to the side, out of any reasonable sight line, it loses its ability to casually keep too much eye contact from bubbling up into angry words and actions.  Another useful way to manage eye contact and connections is have seats in a variety of configurations in a waiting room, some pods of seats that can be used by family groups who want more togetherness, visual and otherwise, and some chairs in rows for people waiting alone.  Waiting room designers know, however, that when people can not make ready eye contact with each other, say because their seats are lined up in rows of chairs facing in the same direction, they more likely to think that a space is crowded that they do if they can easily make eye contact.
• Waiting rooms that are visually cluttered are very stressful places to be, but so are areas that are too bare and stark. As discussed and illustrated in this article, the goal should be the levels of moderate visual complexity found in a residential interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Storage containers whose contents can’t be seen, especially if they’re painted to blend in with the colour of walls can keep cleaning supplies, brochures, etc., near at hand in waiting rooms but out of view.

• Pleasantly scenting a waiting room, ideally with calming odors, as discussed in this article, is useful, particularly because when an area is pleasantly scented we feel that we’ve spent less time there than if it’s not. If warm scents are used in a waiting area, say vanilla or cinnamon, it seems like there are more people together in the space than if cooler scents, such as peppermint or eucalyptus, are being used.
• Nature soundtracks (burbling brooks, gently rustling leaves and grasses, peacefully singing birds), played very quietly, have been shown to mentally refresh users and to help them feel less stressed—and many a waiting room now features just this sort of audio score.
• People sitting on cushioned surfaces, even if the cushions are pretty thin, have a friendlier orientation to other humans than people sitting on hard surfaces, say wooden seats without any sort of padding—which is why except when “easy clean” is a high priority, you’re apt to find cushioned seats in waiting rooms.
• When a space seems more familiar, it seems safer and is preferred by “waiters,” which is why waiting areas for the same sorts of services have a similar sort of look (familiar here does not mean “identical” but means enough like the usual form of something so a photo would be easily identified, as a dentist’s waiting room, for example. We are particularly likely to prefer the familiar (even if our experiences there haven’t been the best) when we’re stressed. We also are more likely to trust an organization where its spaces seem fundamentally familiar and view it as more competent.
• Research has shown that when people are waiting to eat in restaurants, the experiences of people waiting and those eating are best when there is a visual barrier separating those eating from those waiting and when waiting areas are segmented somehow, so people waiting can see fewer other people waiting.
• Waiting in healthcare facilities has been extensively investigated. Researchers have found that we’d rather sit with a view of information sources than windows to nature, which says something about how long many of us have spent waiting for doctors,we’d rather have the information we need to manage our time, for example, to leave if the wait is going to be too long, than to relax and look out the window.  When people are in a healthcare waiting room that they themselves believe is attractive, however they choose to define “attractive,” they feel that services provided are of a higher quality, are less anxious, and feel they’ve waited for a shorter period of time—no wonder your doctor is always redecorating!  And we rate a waiting room we can find more easily as cleaner, more private and aesthetically appealing and comfortable, and as likely associated with a group providing higher quality care.