New new new! We love new!
Ever wondered why we feel compelled to buy new stuff? Jie and Li found that “consumers exhibit mere newness preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer options over older options with no substantive benefits...
Thinking about Smelling
The powerful effects of what we smell on how we live was discussed in a recent article in The New York Times—could it be that we’re about to enter “The Smell Age.” On January...
Generation What?
We regularly hear that the generation that someone’s in should drive the design of the space they’re in. Tom Standage’s review of The Generation Myth: Why When You’re Born Matters Less Than You Think...
“Awe”some is good!
The BBC has decided to talk about awe, something applied psychologists have been fascinated with for years. David Robson, on January 2, 2022 (“Awe: The ‘Little Earthquake’ That Could Free Your Mind,” https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220103-awe-the-little-earthquake-that-could-free-your-mind) talks...
Eating red…
Does the colour of your plates make a difference to the amount and what you eat? Steele and Rash how red dishes affect what we eat… They share that that two previously published “articles...
How background music affects our interactions.
Chang and Kim’s findings will be particularly interesting to you if you’ve spent a lot of time during lockdowns watching movies. They report that “Films in general, and background music in particular, have the...
Ever wondered why green or red affect your coffee shop choice?
Motoki and teammates studied coffee shop design. They report that “Ratings of taste expectations, likelihood of visiting, and emotions were evaluated for each of 50 coffee shop images. . . . The results demonstrate...
Anthropology in Action
Walsh, Gorman, and Salmond studied International Space Station interiors and report their findings in this free-to-all article, which provides interesting insights into applied anthropology. The trio share that they “offer an archaeological analysis of...
How do Virtual Reality Experiences compare to those IRL?
Jin and teammates report that they “investigated how participant perceptions of a single interior environment varied among a real-world space (R) and two surrogate VR spaces (one made with 360° spherical photography and one...
Ask for help in person…
Roghanizad and Bohns report that “Research has found that people are much more likely to agree to help requests made in-person than those made via text-based media, but that help-seekers underestimate the relative advantage...
If You’re in New York City . . .
A current exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum focuses on designing to support healing (https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/design-and-healing/). The exhibit is described on its website: “This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian...
Preferred Surface Colour Combos
Wondering how to paint your home? Don’t mix up the colours too much, group similar hues together. So for instance put hues of blue, or shades of green together. Serra, Gouaich, and Manav explored the...
How Openness among Residents blooms
The personality makeup of citizens seems to evolve with neighbourhoods. Gotz and teammates report that “Rising house prices may change the personality make-up of US cities within a few years, with residents becoming increasingly...
The Value of not being too Unusual
Button reports that “Eye tracking methods and measurements were employed to empirically examine if attention can predict consumer judgements and behavioural outcomes. . . . Findings reveal the importance of the grille as a...
Want to make a good first impression?
We all like to be liked and want to make a good impression. Tooley “found that a space that is aesthetically satisfying and valued, contributes to the likeability of its occupants. . . ....
Sounds and Snacks
Switch on the Classical and Jazz if you’re trying to eat healthy! Motoki and colleagues probe links between sounds heard and food preferences. They found that when “participants rated their preferences for each of...
Stress in the City
How to design a city? Mazumder reports that during his dissertation research he found that “participants were brought into an urban environment, in the real world, but also via virtual reality, through the use...
Which face mask is best?
How easy or difficult is it to understand someone wearing different sorts of face masks? Researchers lead by Brown determined via data collected from people with normal hearing that “cotton masks with filter inserts...
Carefully consider the Cart
This is an interesting one. Ever wondered why shopping trolley handles are the way they are? Ever wondered if they were designed differently how that would affect our spending habits? Well, Estes and Streicher...
Pantone’s Colour for 2022
Pantone has decided that the colour of the year 2022 is Very Peri, a warm periwinkle. This colour will challenge users in the year ahead: It’s pretty energizing to look at, so it’s not...
Green Cities are Good for Kids
Binter and colleagues looked at how urban design affects child development. They share that they “investigated the association between early-life urban environment and cognitive and motor function in children. We used data from 5403...
Remote Working… Are you Talking about Me?
As we are currently moving into a hybrid way of working there is a lot of discussion about how to manage remote and in-office teams. A recent article in the New York Times discussed...
Textures Matter, Even for Robots
Umeda lead a research team that found that “Body texture, such as softness or elasticity, is an important consideration in the design of robots meant for interactive functions. . . . researchers asked adult participants...
Virtual Reality Realism Matters
Newman and colleagues determined that “High realism VR environments provided a greater sense of presence and restoration. Realism is important, particularly for environmental restoration research. . . . Two studies were conducted to examine...
Banking Happiness
Faraji-Rad and Lee determined that “Merely anticipating a future sad event motivates consumers to ‘accumulate happiness’ in order to enhance their ability to cope with the anticipated sadness later—a phenomenon that we call banking...
Living with Stress
Goldring and Bolger investigated how daily stressors influence lives and found that “Prior research shows that daily stressors lead to greater psychological distress. A separate body of research links daily stressors to physical symptoms...
Does remote working impact collaboration?
With so many of us working from home, maybe for the first time or even continuing a trend, this research is important when considering the need to create environments to encourage collaboration. Yang and...
Does Zoom affect the rhythm of our conversation?
Boland and colleagues have learned that “Small, variable transmission delays over Zoom disrupt the typical rhythm of conversation, leading to delays in turn initiation. This study compared local and remote (Zoom) turn transition times....
Can ‘celebrity’ increase your property price?
There used to be a series called “Through the Keyhole“. I don’t know if you remember that? Anyway, there has been some research that appears to prove that if your house was lived in...
Why do some things become clutter?
Ever wondered why some of your stuff becomes clutter? Jonah Berger has written a paper with Jacqueline Rifkin (“How Nonconsumption Can Turn Ordinary Items Into Perceived Treasures”) that indicates why some items become “clutter.”...
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