Colours and Concert-Halls
Chen and Cabrera studied experiences in concert halls; select surfaces were different colours for the various conditions tested. Study participants rated “loudness, reverberance, and their visual and auditory preference for multiple virtual reality scenes...
For the love of Robots…
Although more and more things around us are being automated, from hotel check-ins to whole dining experiences, that doesn’t mean that we necessarily like working with a robot or anything “smart”. Did you know...
Blue is in!
And why shouldn’t it be (always)? Research consistently shows that no matter where on the planet you ask, people are more likely to tell you that blue is their favourite colour than any other...
How to Feel Safe/Secure at Home
We’re more apt to feel safer, that where we live is more “neighbourly,” and actually be more secure when: Cooler colours predominate in the space we’re in. We’re sitting or sleeping so that we...
Home or Asset?
Grant and Handelman report that “Traditionally, the home is regarded as a place of singularization that is to be aligned with the homeowner’s unique identity. This traditional meaning has come to be confronted with...
Does living in a green space help us live longer?
Brochu and collaborators link how green an area is and the death rates of residents. They “conducted a nationwide [in the United States] quantitative health impact assessment to estimate the predicted reduction in mortality...
Coordinating Our Thinking About Sensory Experiences
Scheller and Sui report that “When interacting with the environment, humans exhibit robust biases toward information that pertains to themselves: Self-relevant information is processed faster and yields more accurate responses than information linked to...
Mindfulness Better Unaided
Macaulay and teammates report that “Before and after a 20-minute outdoor experience, participants . . . completed surveys. . . . Participants were randomly allocated to one of four engagement intervention groups: mindful engagement,...
Living Near Green Space and Brain Performance
Jimenez and colleagues link exposure to green space and higher levels of cognitive functioning. They share that that by studying data from 13,594 women (mean age 61), they determined that “increasing green space was...
Working in the Metaverse
Wondering what it might be like to work in the metaverse? Read this article to find out more. Sam Gilbert, the author of the linked to article reports, for example that “The metaverse 1.0...
Place matters, The Places you go….
Whether it’s at work, at school, in a hospital, or even in a shop, we find ourselves in environments that we haven’t designed ourselves. In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll explore why and how...
Fun, Fun, until you have to focus…
There are multiple problems with trying to ‘design in’ fun or playfulness. Different people have different ideas about what’s fun, for example. The only way to even possibly add fun to a workplace is...
Eyes and Ears at Work
In multiple articles we’ve talked about sensory experiences that are relaxing (looking at colours that are not very saturated but relatively light like a sage green with lots of white mixed into it, for...
More sights, smells and feels at work
Over the issues we’ve published we’ve talked several times about home office design, for example here, and all the things that we’ve told you about colour, scents, etc., and your performance and wellbeing in...
Biophilic Design in Workplaces
All those plants you see around your workplace are not there by chance. Research consistently shows that being able to see a couple of plants (not more) as you work boost your cognitive performance,...
Being in control
You’ve probably noticed that sometimes designers and managers give you choices at work—where to sit, whether window blinds are open or closed, the height of your desk—and there’s a research-based reason for that. When...
Designing for Team Work
We meet differently in different sorts of spaces according to the research and lots of workplace designers and managers make sure that there are a range of areas available for people to get together. ...
Hearing the right “silent” messages
Space designers and managers are also really focused on you getting the right messages from what they provide. Some research studies have found that the nonverbal messages that you pull from your workplace have...
Other random but important stuff..
There’s another reason that things all start to look familiar from one space to another that designers and managers know about. When a space at a company looks like we expect it to look...
Healing Spaces
Healing spaces have probably been researched more extensively than any other sort of place (largely because it’s so easy to quantify the results of design actions taken there; after something changes more or less...
Stores
Certain conditions in stores make it more likely that we’ll make purchases and enjoy doing so. Research also indicates that most of the conditions that boost sales in physical stores also do so online,...
Learning Spaces
Learning is thinking so it should come as no surprise that most of the research that has been implemented in workplaces—regarding natural light, plants, visual clutter, views, etc.—has also been applied in classrooms. Research...
As the video gets worse, we start to shout…
Researchers have determined that “The more the video quality of an online meeting degrades, the louder we start talking, a new study by researchers at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics...
Feel less Frazzled
Even in our world’s best of times, life isn’t always the best-est and our planet’s current predicaments seem to move all of our societies’ wellbeing scores from middle of the road, neither terrible nor...
How to use Sound?
A few of us actively soundscape the worlds in which we live, but way too many of us just let sound happen to us, which is an opportunity missed. To calm yourself via your...
How to use Scent?
Now that you’ve considered what you’re hearing, it’s time to think about what you’re smelling as you try to decompress: Smelling lavender helps you relax (it also encourages you to be more trusting of...
What we See and Touch
It probably won’t surprise you at all to know that touching soft things, such like the flannels that baby pyjamas are made of, is relaxing. If you want to banish the stress demons, make...
Clear that Clutter once and for all!
Visual clutter, known in the psych trade as visual complexity, is a sure-fire way to work your internal stress meter up to dangerous levels.If getting rid of clutter was straightforward, however, you would already...
How to REALLY relax in a Space?
To really relax in a space, people need to feel in control of it, that no one can intrude visually or acoustically without their permission—in other words, no one can see or hear them...
How to Travel Stress-Free?
Many of us now are starting to travel again (hurray!) outside our own car—but travel is stressful—we’re packed into airplanes, trains, and buses as close as sardines (sometimes it seems closer) and don’t have...
English