Writing is worth it! (vs the keyboard…!)
Van der Weel and Van der Meer share that “Brain electrical activity was recorded in 36 university students as they were handwriting visually presented words using a digital pen and typewriting the words on...
At home and onsite creativity
Rucker and associates “conducted an experimental study with a German company whose employees usually work in an activity-based workspace consisting of open, closed and informal spaces that can be used by employees depending on...
Fix-it-up Timeline… what should you tackle first and why…
Even if you move into a brand-new home, one that has never been lived in by anyone else, you’ll need to make some changes before your new house becomes your new home. The first...
Add Variety to be More Creative
Nagayama found that having multiple worksites can boost our creativity. Via a survey they probed “the relationship between MLW [multiple-locational work] . . . and worker outcomes, such as engagement, creativity, and well-being. ....
Consequences of Time in Nature
Joye and teammates report that they “tested the ‘nature-as-reward hypothesis’, which suggests that superior cognitive task performance following nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things. ....
Collaboration – in person vs online
Van der Wouden and Youn (as reported by Ayshford) studied “17 million scientific publications over the past 45 years find[ing] that researchers who collaborated locally were much more likely to gain new knowledge from...
Sitting, Standing and Health
Nguyen and colleagues report that their “research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of three hypothetical SB interventions: behavioural (BI), environmental (EI) and multi-component intervention (MI). . . . The effectiveness of the modelled interventions in reducing...
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 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,...
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...
Designing for Creativity
As the new year dawns, many of us decide to spend time at creative endeavours, and design can help with that! The findings that follow are place-independent; they hold, and can be applied, whether...
Feeling with your Fingertips – the Long Read
Humans have lots of skin, with lots of nerves embedded in it. All those nerves are churning away, second after second, sending millions of impulses to your brain – giving you all sorts of...
Feeling not with your Fingertips – from your feet to your butt!
We don’t just have nerve endings in our fingertips and tactile experiences from the soles of our feet as we walk, from our butts as we sit, etc., also influence our experiences in a...
Viewing Textures
Textures on surfaces are often seen, so they influence how people think and behave, even if no one ever reaches out to touch them: We prefer glossy surfaces to ones that are matte so...
Things we learned in 2023
In 2023, researchers have reported that: Symmetrical things seem more functional and reliable and asymetical ones more fun and exciting—useful information when you’re making choices. At-work sound volumes of about 50 dBA are best;...
Biophilic School Design – Great for Students, Teachers, and the Planet They Live On
When biophilic design principles are applied at places where people are learning and teaching, good things happen—moods and cognitive performance improve (for students and teachers!)—which is always a plus, whether trigonometry or Latin grammar...
The Value of Biophilic Design
The neuroscience research makes it very, very clear that being in a biophilicly designed space elevates our wellbeing. Need proof of the value of indoor biophilicly designed spaces? Here’s a representative sample of research...
Boring meetings and passive fatigue!
Nurmi and Pakarinen’s work “challenge[s] the commonly held belief that virtual meeting fatigue manifests as exhaustion (i.e., active fatigue) resulting from overloading demands and instead suggest that participation in virtual meetings may lead to...
Scents to make us feel good!
When we’re mingling we’re often cooking and eating. How do the food smells we’re likely to encounter influence our time with others? Scents that make us feel nostalgic improve our mood, whether those scents...
What your Zoom background says about you
Wonder what to do about your Zoom backgrounds so you seem trustworthy? Read Lianne Kolirin’s article on CNN (2023, “The Zoom Backgrounds That Make You Look More – or Less – Trustworthy, According to...
Bergamot scents and Stress levels
Liu and colleagues studied the “effects of ambient bergamot scent on the stress levels of office workers by exposing them to the scent while stressors persisted as the workers continued to work on the...
Working from home and Cars…
Sepanta, O’Brien, and Arpan collected data from people “who started teleworking and moved at least 20 kilometres away from their original homes within two years of the beginning of COVID-19. . . . The...
Biophilic Learning Space Design – Great for Students, Teachers, and the Planet They Live On
When biophilic design principles are applied at places where people are learning and teaching, good things happen—moods and cognitive performance improve (for students and teachers!)—which is always a plus, whether trigonometry or Latin grammar...
Designing Schools
There are some aspects of great learning spaces that we can’t tie to our early history as a species, at least not well. They include: Effective screening to eliminate audio and visual distractions. Lots...
Quick Recap – Places to Focus
People learning need to be focusing on what they’re doing. Design supports focus when it: Uses colours that are not very saturated and are relatively light—a sage green or smokey blue with lots of...
Optimising Mental Energy Levels via Design
We do mentally easier tasks in spaces that are relatively energising places to be and those that require us to be more thoughtful, that are more challenging, in spaces where the design vibe is...
Spaces to mentally refresh!
When your brain has grown tired learning, remembering, etc., design can encourage a quick mental refresh when: You can see through a nearby window to nature outside, particularly if quietly flowing, “friendly” looking water...
Using Spaces to Remember…
Human minds really are fascinating and the way they work means that using spaces in particular ways can help us remember things. When we’re working or just musing, we offload thoughts to the world...
Creating places to mentally refresh?
When your brain has grown tired learning, remembering, etc., design can encourage a quick mental refresh when: You can see through a nearby window to nature outside, particularly if quietly flowing, “friendly” looking water...
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