Teenagers and Physical Spaces
Buttazzoni and Minaker studied teenager (age 9 to 17) and identified “several significant associations. Notably, spaces high in complexity (visual richness), imageability (distinctiveness), and enclosure (room-like quality) tended to support positive affect [mood]. Additionally,...
Time Perception, Time in Nature
Correia shares that “There is growing evidence that nature experiences can influence human sense of time by (i) extending human perception of temporal duration and (ii) shifting time perspectives. People who spend time in...
Mental Health and Nature Access
Makram and colleagues “found that neighborhoods with a NatureScore of 60+ [0–100; low to high nature levels] had lower overall mental health utilization than those below 40. . . . This relationship persisted for...
Bigger = Better
Spielmann and Rossi “Through four studies, including a field study, we examine the associative semantic schema deduced from wider (versus narrower) glassware rim and how the ‘bigger is better’ bias influences consumer purchase behavior...
Designing in Taste
Spence reports that “people intuitively match roundness with sweetness, while picking angular forms to represent the other four basic tastes. . . . Roundness is also associated with and tends to accentuate, creaminess. ....
Seeing and Eating
Joye and colleagues “tested if savoring (visual) beauty could satiate consumers, such that they would no longer feel the need to satisfy themselves via actual eating. In two studies, participants had to watch photos...
Your Home’s “Face”
The façade of your home is the face that it presents to the world. Just like our own faces have a big effect on the instantaneous opinions formed of us as people, the front...
Front Door Colours
One of the home design decisions that people agonize over for longest is what colour to paint their front door. There are so many colours to choose from, and the choice seems so significant,...
Outdoor Views
As Spring moves forward across the Northern Hemisphere, you may be thinking of what to do with the landscapes surrounding your home. Neuroscience research has a lot of useful information related to this topic....
Harvesting useful Outdoor Scents
While you are planning your outdoor spaces, think about what they’ll smell like. You can harvest those smells through open windows and smell them directly when you are outdoors. Neuroscience indicates that the following...
Garden Design – Creating the Right Path
When you are creating paths outside through gardens, etc., or inside by arranging the furniture in your living room, you can choose options that are straighter or more curved. Should you go with something...
Battling Burnout with Design
Spring can often seem to be the season for burnout, the winter has been long, and just before the plants really spring back to life, our existences can seem bleak—and we all work too...
What you’re missing (maybe?!)
Dominic Lutyens in an article for bbc.com (“Inside the Homes That ‘Whisper Rather Than Scream Luxury,’” 2024, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240208-inside-the-homes-that-whisper-rather-than-scream-luxury ) writes about the rise of quietly luxurious spaces. As he reports, “In his foreword to...
Sleeping in Cupboards
Think your sleeping situation is challenging? In days of yore, people slept in cupboards, as Zuria Gorvett describes in “The Strange Reasons Medieval People Slept in Cupboards (2024, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240122-the-strange-reasons-medieval-people-slept-in-cupboards): “Otherwise known as a closet...
Taking classes online
Harris and Whiting found that “Participants in online classrooms struggle to make sense of emotional interactions. This is due to the separation of physical place between persons and the inability to see the reaction...
Lighting at home for Older Generation
Banerjee and associates determined that “better lighting at home was associated with increased physical activity at home. For every 0.1-log units increase in average home lighting, individuals took 5% more daily steps and had...
Closeness and Brands – real or artificial affects how we feel about them…
Rauschnabel and colleagues report that “Our results show that because AR [augmented reality] makes digital objects appear directly in front of the consumer, or even virtually applied to the consumer’s body, it can increase...
Attributes of Homes we’re Willing to Pay for
Lou, Wang, Yuan, and Lu used data from Hong Kong to measure assessed WTP (willingness to pay) for various design features in homes: “We first simulate the metrics of five housing attributes under different...
Father child bonding and green spaces
Neighbourhood design and some parenting practices seem to be related. Mygind and colleagues state that “There were no observable associations between residential greenness [i.e., Normalized Difference in Vegetation Index] within a 1,600 m network radius...
Team Colours, Implications
Forrester and colleagues report that “This study aims to empirically test whether identifying as a supporter of either New South Wales (NSW) or Queensland (QLD) rugby league teams influences the extent that their respective...
Clothes and Thinking
Horton, Adam, and Galinsky share that “Enclothed cognition refers to the systematic influence that clothes can have on the wearer’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through their symbolic meaning. It has attracted considerable academic and...
What should your furniture be made of? – The Long Read
After our houses and our cars, our furniture may be our biggest investment. Sofas, chairs, tables . . . none of them come cheap and modern life seems to require multiple pieces for each...
What should the basic form of your furniture be?
Once you decide what materials your furniture should be made of, other questions come to the fore: What should that furniture look like at a very, very basic level? Regardless of our personality, culture,...
Specifically, what should your furniture, literally, feel like?
We tend not to think too much about what a design option feels like when we’re pondering choices available to us—but what we feel with our skin has a powerful effect on how we...
How should you arrange your furniture?
As with so many things, it all depends. How you arrange your furniture should depend on how you intend to use the space it’s in. Logic prevails. And try to invest in the bare...
What style of furniture is best for you and the people you share a space with?
Read this article on personality and design to learn more. Also, remember that furniture style sends all sorts of messages nonverbally. Select accordingly. Are you and your family modern farmers (even though you live...
What other furnishings are best for you and yours? Some links!
In previous issues we’ve talked about using mirrors in your home (here) and plants (for instance here), along with rugs (here), curtains (this article) and so many other things that are in the spaces...
Hygge forever – and that includes if you’re Scottish, Norwegian, Dutch or anything inbetween. The joy of ‘Cosycore’.
Holly Williams, in a recent post on the BBC (2024, “The Joy of ‘Cosycore’ and Hunkering Down,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240105-the-joy-of-cosycore-and-hunkering-down) reiterates just how wonderful a cozy, hygge inspired space can be at this time of year. ...
Analysing Spaces – what does your bookshelf say about you?!
Think that nonverbal signaling via design is silly? Read Tim Dowling’s 2024 article in The Guardian, “Shelf-Absorbed: Eight Ways to Arrange Your Bookshelves – And What They Say About You” (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/shelf-absorbed-nine-ways-to-arrange-your-bookshelves-and-what-they-say-about-you). Dowling’s work does...
Colouring your best mood
Many of us are not in the best of all moods as we slog our way through the beginning of any year – whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just too...
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