Visit Wiley.com to save 20% on Place Advantage by Sally Augustin, PhD, editor of Research Design Connections. Your discount will be applied automatically upon checkout. If you do you not see the discount being applied, please enter code aff20 in the Promotion Code field and click the Apply Discount button.
Welcome to the Research Design Connections blog.
This is a forum to discuss recent research of interest to designers. To comment on a blog entry, please send an e-mail message to sallyaugustin@researchdesignconnections.com.
Varlander has reviewed the workplace experiences of employees of a Swedish firm that implemented an open space office design. Data were gathered several years after changes were made to the workplace using interviews and by observing at the firm.
In the original workplace employees worked in their own offices, while after the redesign 50 employees worked in an open landscape on each of the 10 floors of the organization’s office building. A large communal kitchen was constructed on each of the floors, complete with sofas and chairs that created informal meeting spaces. Before the redesign, employees had access to a single cafeteria serving the entire building and many individuals ate lunch away from the building. Executives also worked in the open offices, relocating there from their private offices on the top floor of the structure. A few private conference rooms were located near each kitchen.
Since one of the walls in each conference room is glass “many of the employees were said to feel that the glass walls did not unequivocally lead to feelings of openness and transparency. There was also a sense that the glass walls created an even more clear demarcation of groups and hierarchies, of being an insider or outsider of a specific group/meeting.”
Other issues with the new environment were enumerated: “Although the new office space setup . . .was perceived to promote spontaneous and more frequent meetings between employees . . . the open plan led to employees being disturbed by colleagues speaking with each other. Thus, a number of rules were developed . . . the employees stipulated that no extra chairs could be placed around the desks . . All spontaneous interactions had to take place in so-called silent rooms . . . So even as the open landscape afforded spontaneous interactions, these were perceived to be disruptive to the work activities of other employees and hence relocated to other—separate—spaces.”
Particular work areas developed “local codes of conduct,” related to issues such as telephone etiquette and wearing perfume, and in the open environment it was easy to identify rule violations. These identifications, on occasion, resulted in inter-employee tension.
In addition, “The office remodeling, although it served to increase the interaction between employees in the same open landscape, also led to decreased interaction between employees in different departments . . . Once a kitchen was placed on every floor, it afforded fewer possibilities for spontaneous meetings over lunch between colleagues on different floors.”
In conclusion, “Informants underscored that the ‘team feeling’ had strengthened, since employees . . . saw each other more frequently and were able to speak with each other more often and exchange gazes and gestures” but a full consideration of the worker experiences in both the new and old workplaces revealed significant negative issues to be resolved.
Sara Varlander. 2012. “Individual Flexibility in the Workplace: A Spatial Perspective.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 33-61.
Are you a morning person or an evening person? New research indicates that the answer to that question can help you determine when you should tackle tasks that require creative thought. Wieth and Zack describe their creativity-related study: “participants solved insight . . . problems at their optimal or nonoptimal time of day . . . results showed consistently greater insight problem solving performance during non-optimal times of day compared to optimal times of day . . . The findings indicate that tasks involving creativity might benefit from a nonoptimal time of day.” What this means in everyday language is that morning people should try to solve problems requiring creative thought in the late afternoon, and evening people should undertake them in the morning.
Mareike Wieth and Rose Zack. 2011. “Time of Day Effects on Problem Solving: When the Non-Optimal is Optimal.” Thinking and Reasoning, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 387-401.
Designers have been carefully considering the future of the workplace for quite some time. Advanced Workplace Associates has collected information that they’ll find useful. The researchers learned that “Employees in the early stages of their career prefer to work at the office to see and be seen.” Discussing this research, Andrew Mawson, Managing Director at Advanced Workplace Associates stated, “’the main surprise is that a daily presence in the office is more important for less experienced, younger staff. For this group, learning the ropes, making contacts and gaining recognition are more important. As people become more established and have proven their abilities, they are more likely to support working flexibly or remotely as part of their working pattern.’”
“Generation Y Wants to Work at Work.” 2012. Press release, Advanced Workplace Associates, http://www.advanced-workplace.com.
Public health researchers have probed the influence of color coding food and the design of food displays on consumption of healthier and less healthy meal options. As they describe their project “We assessed whether a 2-phase labeling and choice architecture intervention would increase sales of healthy food and beverages in a large hospital cafeteria . . . Phase 1 was a 3-month color-coded labeling intervention (red = unhealthy, yellow = less healthy, green = healthy). Phase 2 added a 3-month choice architecture intervention that increased the visibility and convenience of some green items. We compared relative changes in 3-month sales from baseline to phase 1 and from phase 1 to phase 2 . . . Sales of red items decreased in both phases (P < .001), and green items increased in phase 1 (P < .001. . . A color-coded labeling intervention improved sales of healthy items and was enhanced by a choice architecture intervention.” When objects were re-arranged based on their healthfulness, the healthiest options were placed at eye level with less healthy options on lower shelves.
Anne Thorndike, Lillian Sonnenberg, Jason Rils, Susan Barraclough, and Douglas Levy. “A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices.” Press release, American Journal of Public Health, http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300391
Are you working with someone for whom scents, from new carpets or building materials, for example, are a really important issue? New dissertation research by Linus Andersson at Umea Universitet (Sweden) indicates that people who are very sensitive to scents do not adjust as well to smells as others. Therefore, finding products for smell-sensitive clients with the correct “scent profile” may be quite difficult and an issue that can’t be resolved by suggestions to ignore odors.
“Why Do Smells Make Some People Sick?” 2012. Press release, Umea Universitet, http://www.alphagalileo.org.
British psychologists have learned that all that time we spend sitting at work has repercussions beyond the size of the posterior we’re sitting on. Dr Myanna Duncan, Mr. Aadil Kazi and Professor Cheryl Haslam from the Work & Health Research Centre, Loughborough University, presented their workplace-based research January 13 at the British Psychological Society's Annual Occupational Conference. This team of psychologists found that people who sit for longer periods of time at work also are more likely to sit when they’re not at work. In addition, “more time spent sitting at work was associated with a decrease in mental well-being.” Duncan and colleagues collected data using multiple tools and techniques: “Specific measures [on on-line and paper surveys] included Lifestyle and physical activity, Domain Specific Sitting Time Questionnaire, Work Ability Index, General Health Questionnaire and Job Attitudes (job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job motivation, intention to quit). Interviews and focus groups with Occupational Health professionals were also conducted.” At the conclusion of the press release discussing the January 13 presentation, Dr. Duncan is quoted encouraging office workers to “’go and talk to your colleagues face to face, it's a lot more sociable and better for you than emailing them." Design that encourages that walking around, by creating inviting circulation routes and destinations, benefits workers’ physical and mental well-being.
“Office Workers Spend Too Much Time at Their Desks.” 2012. Press release, British Psychological Society, http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=115991&CultureCode=en
Researchers at Baylor have collected additional evidence regarding the ways in which place communicates nonverbally. Their findings are consistent with earlier research on voting places and decisions made by voters. LaBouff, Johnson, and Finkle found that “’people [asked to answer survey questions] near a religious building reported slightly but significantly more conservative social and political attitudes than similar people near a government building,’ said co-author Wade Rowatt, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor. ‘In a close election, the place where people vote — a school, a church, a government building — could affect the outcome. For example, a higher percentage of people voting in a church instead of a school might vote for a conservative candidate or proposition.’ He noted that a Stanford University study of an Arizona school funding referendum in 2000 showed that voters polled in schools were more likely to support a state tax increase than were those polled in churches or community centers. That study was published in 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.”
“Where You Vote May Influence How You Vote, Baylor University Researchers Find.” 2012. Press release, Baylor University, http://www.baylor.edu.
Gray explores the influence of interpersonal interactions on experience. Reviewing his findings he states “This research examined . . . whether physical experience is influenced by the interpersonal context in which stimuli occur. Specifically, three studies examined whether perceiving benevolent intentions behind stimuli can improve their experience . . The results confirm that good intentions—even misguided ones—can sooth pain, increase pleasure, and make things taste better. More broadly, these studies suggest that basic physical experience depends upon how we perceive the minds of others.” And those minds might belong to designers.
Kurt Gray. “The Power of Good Intentions: Perceived Benevolence Soothes Pain, Increases Pleasure, and Improves Taste.” Social Psychological and Personality Science, in press.
Bagchi and Davis have completed research on how the manner in which options are presented influences choices made, which complements existing work in the field. Bagchi and Davis conducted multiple studies that “demonstrate how presentation order affects package evaluations and choice under different levels of package size [unit quantity] and unit price calculation difficulty. The first piece of information becomes salient and affects evaluations when packages are larger and unit price calculations are difficult (i.e., price-item [item-price] makes price [items] salient, negatively [positively] affecting evaluations). These effects do not persist with smaller packages or easier unit price calculations.” This research may help designers understand decisions made by clients.
Rajesh Bagchi and Derick F. Davis. "$29 for 70 Items or 70 Items for $29? How Presentation Order Affects Package Perceptions." Journal of Consumer Research, in press.
People doing or using design research won’t be surprised by O’Brien and Ellsworth’s recent findings. Their work “suggests that the same experience is viewed as better simply because people are aware that it is the last in a series, and this awareness influences subsequent evaluations and preferences. . . . For example, the last book of a series or the last speaker in a symposium may receive unwarranted praise, research subjects may give overly positive responses on the last tasks of experiments, and the last job applicants or students (e.g., those whose papers are graded last) may look especially qualified.” O’Brien and Ellsworth suggest, tongue in cheek, that readers “consider a cheaper option during your final visit to a restaurant—it may taste just as delicious as any other.”
Ed O’Brien and Phoebe Ellsworth. “Saving the Last for Best: A Positivity Bias for End Experiences.” Psychological Science, in press.
Niki Harre, a professor at the University of Auckland, is making available free at the website noted below a book length discussion of “strategies to inspire sustainability.” Her work, titled Psychology for a Better World, is described as “based on the latest research in psychology . . . It offers new ways to think about how people interact in social settings, why we are tempted to stick with what we know, and how the same characteristics that currently keep us hooked into unsustainable practices can be used to move us forward.”
http://www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/our-staff/academic-staff/niki-harre/psychologyforabetterworld
McCarley and his associates compared the ability of younger (early 20’s) and older (early 70’s) people to quickly pick particular information out of visual clutter. They learned that “clutter disproportionately degrades older adults’ visual performance.”
Jason McCarley, Yusuke Yamani, Arthur Kramer, and Jeffrey Mounts. Psychology and Aging, in press.
Designers collecting information before beginning to plan projects, particularly workplace ones, often ask the people who will use a space about their work – and all designers need to effectively plan their own schedules. Halkjelsvik and his colleagues learned that “Past research has shown that people underestimate the time they need to complete large tasks, whereas completion times for smaller tasks are often overestimated, suggesting higher productivity estimates for larger than for smaller tasks. By replacing the traditional question about how much time a given work will take with a question about how much work can be completed within a given amount of time, we also found the opposite pattern. Both trends could reflect a general tendency to underestimate large amounts (of work as well as time) relatively to small ones.”
Torleif Halkjelsvik, Magne Jorgensen, and Karl Telgen. 2011. “To Read Two Pages, I Need 5 Minutes, But Give Me 5 Minutes and I Will Read Four: How to Change Productivity Estimates by Inverting the Question.” Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 314-323.
A study recently published in The Journal of Pain provides additional research support for including sound systems in all patient care environments. Researchers report “Music helps reduce pain by activating sensory pathways that compete with pain pathways, stimulating emotional responses, and engaging cognitive attention. Music, therefore, provided meaningful intellectual and emotional engagement to help reduce pain.”
“Study Assesses Pain Relieving Benefits from Music.” 2011. Press release, The American Pain Society, http://www.ampainsoc.org.
Urban planners and people in related fields are regularly asked about links between traffic congestion and economic conditions in the congested area. Sweet concludes that “research on individual, business, and public-sector responses to congestion demonstrate a shift from congestion mitigation toward adaptation.”
Matthias Sweet. 2011. “Does Traffic Congestion Slow the Economy?” Journal of Planning Literature, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 391-404.
Research readily available to healthcare designers for some time has indicated that listening to music seems to reduce the perceived painfulness of medical procedures. Now, Anahad O’Connor of The New York Times has reviewed the available related scientific evidence and concludes that: “Listening to music during or after a medical procedure may relieve pain, but more research is needed to determine whether the effect is significant.”
Anahad O’Connor. 2012. “Really? The Claim: Listening to Music Can Relieve Pain.” The New York Times, January 2, Health Section, http://www.nytimes.com
Research regularly reported here links personality and preferred place design. A new study by Del Giudice and his colleagues provides interesting related insights about gender differences and personality. These researchers conclude that “The idea that there are only minor differences between the personality profiles of males and females should be rejected as based on inadequate methodology.”
Marco Del Giudice, Tom Booth, and Paul Irwing. 2012. “The Distances Between Mars and Venus: Measuring Global Sex Differences in Personality.” PLoS One, vol. 7, no. 1, http://www.plosone.org.
Although research recently conducted at Cornell and London Metropolitan University relates to adult’s and children’s plates, it ultimately may be shown to have repercussions for a broad range of design decisions - such as color use in healthcare facilities where eating needs to be encouraged (e.g., anorexia treatment facilities) – particularly when adults are designing these sorts of spaces for child users. Researchers Wansink, Kniffin, Shimizu, and Zampollo learned that “While adults prefer three components and three colors on their plates children preferred seven components and six colors, more than double the adult preference of three!”
“Add Color and Variety to Children’s Plates.” 2011. Cornell University, Food and Brand Lab, press release, http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu
Singh and colleagues reviewed the existing research on adolescent physical activity and academic performance. They determined that “Participation in physical activity is positively related to academic performance in children.” This finding is a strong argument for developing, both on school grounds and elsewhere, places that motivate adolescents to be physically active.
Amika Singh, Leonie Uijtdewilligen, Jos Twisk, Willem van Mechelen, and Mai Chinapaw. 2012. “Physical Activity and Performance at School.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, vol. 166, no. 1, pp. 49-55.