RDC Blog

Na Wang’s exquisitely thorough and thoughtful dissertation research investigates our emotional, attitudinal, and cognitive responses to sunlight, window views, privacy, and control.  Her findings have important repercussions for workplace design.

Wang defined “privacy as the level of visual isolation from the environment” and “control as the ability to regulate exposure to the surroundings.”  Data were collected in a 20 ft by 16 foot room on the second floor of a University of Illinois building in Urbana-Champaign, IL:  “The experimental room had an outdoor view of natural landscape.  The room had a floor-to-ceiling window facing east.  A full-height window blind enabled us to fully control the sunlight penetration at a level of 20-25%, which is the percentage of the floor area that received direct sunlight. . . The walls and ceilings were off-white and the reflectance was about 80%.”

In general, study participants preferred a work desk that was “close to or within the sun patch” although only 19% chose to sit directly in the sun. Sunlight was not the only factor influencing preferred work desk placement: “Subjects also tried to face the doorway . . . viewing the entire room is not less important than having access to the outdoor view . . .  . A sense of control in a room appears to be more important than outdoor view, if a subject cannot have both.” 

The work spaces that were preferred were not necessarily those in which study participants performed best.  They did better on cognitive tasks when they worked in areas with higher levels of control.  In those spaces “subjects could view the door way and the entire room.”  Performance was also higher in spaces with more privacy.  Wang and Boubekri found that  “Subjects preferred to sit in a sunlit spot with abundant outdoor views . . . but neither their cognitive performance nor their mood were enhanced there.  A corner spot at the back of the room . . . turned out to be an optimal seat for the tasks given to the subjects, but only a few individuals chose to place their work desk there.”

This research demonstrates how important it is for workplace designers to consider the full range of psychological and physiological experiences that workers will ultimately have in the spaces they develop.  The findings about sunlight, privacy, and control can be applied to create desirable spaces where people work well, even though considering these factors simultaneously does complicate the planning process.

N. Wang and M. Boubekri.  “Design Recommendations Based on Cognitive, Mood, and Preference Assessments in a Sunlit Workspace.”  Lighting Research and Technology, in press.

New homes are fundamentally different from slightly older homes, according to a recent report compiled by Les Christie.  The Census Bureau has announced that in 2009 the median new home had 2,135 square feet, compared to 2,300 earlier in this decade.  The Census has also found that the average owner-occupied home in the US has 6 rooms, which includes 3 bedrooms.  Now, almost 90% of new homes have central air conditioning and 63% of homes are cooled.  Ten years ago, only 52% of owner-occupied homes were air conditioned.  The chief economist at the AIA, Kermit Baker, reports “Consumers don’t ask as much for spaces devoted to single purposes, such as media rooms for watching videos and game rooms for shooting pool.  Instead the requests are for rooms with shared uses.”

Les Christie.  2010.  “The American Home is Shrinking – and Gaining Appliances.”  http://www.finance.yahoo.com.

Sometimes people are more interested in making choices than others.  Designers presenting options to clients take note:  when people are pursuing utilitarian goals choosing isn’t so important, but when a pleasurable experience is involved, they’d rather make a selection.  Botti and McGill conducted research and found that:  “Results consistently show that the outcome of a self-made choice is more satisfying than the outcome of an externally made choice when the goal is hedonic [pleasure], but when the goal is utilitarian there is no difference in satisfaction between choosers and non-choosers.”  Clients purchasing art for a utilitarian reason, such as to keep patients calm, and people buying art that will be a pleasure to view clearly have different perspectives on the importance of selecting that artwork.

Simona Botti and Ann L. McGill. “The Locus of Choice: Personal Causality and Satisfaction with Hedonic and Utilitarian Decisions.” Journal of Consumer Research, in press.

When does something really belong to someone?  The answer to this question is pertinent to designers because perceptions of ownership influence the extent to which a territory is respected by others and defended/enhanced.  Kannigiese and her colleagues determined that participants in their study “Were more likely to transfer [perceived] ownership to the second individual after he or she invested creative labor in the object than after any other manipulations (holding the object, making small changes to it). . . . Duration of manipulation had no effect on property-ownership transfer.”  Creative labor was not well defined in the study but generally involved a significant manipulation of the object that resulted in a meaningful change in the way it was understood.

Patricia Kannigiese, Nathalia Gjersoe, and Bruce Hood.  “The Effect of Creative Labor on Property-Ownership Transfer by Preschool Children and Adults.”  Psychological Science, in press.

Schielke investigated whether it was possible to communicate brand messages through the lighting in retail outlets.  It will not surprise anyone who is a regular reader of this blog that the answer to this question is “yes.”  The Schielke article is interesting because it indicates that the ability of light to communicate nonverbally and influence mood is becoming more widely known.  The researcher concludes that utilization of consistent lighting concepts “reflects a brand identity.”  The study design eliminated the influence of specific luminaires on brand assessments:  “the significant impression can be made just with the light alone.”  In addition, “The aspect of brightness, although much discussed in lighting research, actually only plays a subordinate role” in the branding process.

T. Schielke.  “Light and Corporate Identity:  Using Lighting for Corporate Communication.”  Lighting Research and Technology, in press.

Researchers have recently studied preferred bedroom design, and their findings support conclusions that have been drawn by biophilic design experts.  Study participants asked by Sporrle and Stich to position a bed and other furniture on a floor plan, “predominantly positioned the bed in a way that (a) allowed them to see the door, (b) was as distant as possible from the door, and (c) was on the side of the room toward which the door opened [this means that a person in bed would not be seen immediately when the door is opened].”  Sporrle and Stich found that when a window was included on the floor plan and that window could not be monitored from the same position as the door, a few less people placed the bed so that it faced the door (79%); 87% oriented the bed so that they could see the door when the situation complicating window was not present.  These findings have repercussions for the design of sleeping spaces in homes, hospitals, and hotels and also provide insights into the design of other spaces where it is desirable for people to feel comfortable.

Matthias Sporrle and Jennifer Stich.  2010.  “Sleeping in Safe Places:  An Experimental Investigation of Human Sleeping Place Preferences from an Evolutionary Perspective.”  Evolutionary Psychology, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 405-419.

Gibson and McDaniel have studied organizational behavior using a cross-cultural perspective.  They conclude “that even well-establish organizational behavior theories vary in the extent to which they may be applied unilaterally across cultures.”  In their literature review Gibson ad McDaniel discuss research published by Gibson and Zellmer-Bruhn in 2001 that linked four different national cultures to different metaphors for teams.  These metaphors can usefully inform place design:  “countries high in individualism (such as the United States and France, in which there is greater emphasis on individual goals vs. group goals) tended to use the sports or associates metaphors, whereas countries high in power distance (such as Philippines and Puerto Rico, in which there is a high expectation that there will be differences in power between those in authority and those who are not) tended to use the military or family metaphors.”

Cristina Gibson and Dana McDaniel.  2010.  “Moving Beyond Conventional Wisdom:  Advancements in Cross-Cultural Theories of Leadership, Conflict an Teams.”  Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 5, pp. 450-462.

In this open source article, Sailer and her colleagues introduce readers to important tenets of space syntax by investigating the influence of several office design interventions on organizational behavior.  Space syntax principles are migrating from academic labs to real world implementations, and this readable introduction to the field is useful to people who want to begin to integrate space syntax into their design process. 

Space syntax is a highly ordered system for assessing or predicting the behavioral implications of the design of a space. Its tenets can be directly applied or used to inspire easier to implement research programs. 

Several case studies are presented. They show space syntax methods in use in combination with more well established research tools, such as observation and written surveying.  One case study discusses a large media corporation in London that decided to co-locate employees who had previously been distributed in several buildings.  This change was made not only to use space more efficiently, but also to encourage interactions among specific groups of workers.  The new workspace utilized three floors of a large office building, with offices spread across all three floors.  An open reception area was built on the ground floor, as well as neighboring meeting rooms. A café was placed one floor above that reception area.  Central facilities, described as “printing points, meeting rooms, and soft seating areas,” are present on all floors.  An open staircase connects the ground floor with the café floor.  The central portion of each floor is an open atrium. 

This configuration increased movement within the office space, which was annoying to some employees.  As the authors state, “movement was first and foremost perceived as a factor causing noise disturbance . . . rather than creating opportunities to meet and encounter people for recruitment and further processes of interaction.”  Even though people were moving more, they were interacting less around their desks and the researchers have concluded after comparing results from several projects that “Interactivity at workstations generally decreases as movement density increases, specifically as movement density becomes very high.”  Reports of intensive face-to-face contact increased after the work groups were co-located which means that personal interactions moved from individuals’ desks to other places and “these results point towards organisational behaviours that were more planned and less spontaneous.”

Designers who have been frustrated by the complexity of other discussions of space syntax, but want to learn more about the field, will benefit from reading this article.

Kerstin Sailer, Andrew Budgen, Nathan Lonsdale, Alasdair Turner, and Alan Penn.  2010.  “Pre and Post Occupancy Evaluations in Workplace Environments:  Theoretical Reflections and Practical Implications.”  Journal of Space Syntax, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 199-213, http://www.journalofspacesyntax.org

Solet and her team have investigated the noise levels that can be experienced by hospital patients during the night.  Their “results provide evidence that repeated arousals occur from common hospital noises at typical decibel levels even in healthy young adults.  The reported responses varied with the sound stimulus characteristics and across different sleep stages.”  Although their data were collected in a sleep laboratory, the researchers were careful to recreate the sound levels and types experienced by hospital patients by using recordings of noises made in hospitals.  This project is noteworthy because it carefully quantifies the sleep disrupting capabilities of nighttime hospital noises. 

Specifically, researchers found “Phone and intravenous infusion pump alarms, which are intentionally designed to be alerting, were effective in evoking the highest arousal probabilities. “  Conversations among staff members were also found to impede sleep. 

The research team make the common sense suggestion to reduce background noise levels in hospitals, from HVAC systems, for example, and then lower the volume of pump alarms, lower the ring volumes on patient room phones and reduce the number of rings sounded for any one telephone call.  Surface materials and other tools to limit sound transmission from nurses’ stations are also suggested.  In addition “Special consulting spaces should be allocated for nurses in which voice-based information can be transferred away from open hall areas, yet not far from nursing stations. Protocols such as dimming hall lights at night as a “quiet cue” should be incorporated as part of behavioral protocols to limit sleep disruption by staff voices.”  Finally, “Proper door hardware will limit latch noises; door gasket selection will better protect patients from hall and nurses’ station noise, as well as blocking transfer out of noise generated within that patient room.  Policy regarding keeping patient doors open should be re examined. Other options should be considered, including systems-level solutions such as telemetry to a common station and assignment of staff to specific patients, allowing them to be individually alerted to patient needs.” 

Solet and her colleagues report “A quieter environment is also more protective of staff, reducing stress and burnout, enhancing communication, and reducing medical errors—all of which contribute to higher quality healthcare. “

Specific details regarding the sounds types and levels tested are available in the complimentary report at the website noted below.

Jo Solet, Orfeu Buxton, Jeffrey Ellenbogen, Wei Wang, and Andrew Carballeira.  2010.  “Evidence-Based Design Meets Evidence-Based Medicine:  The Sound Sleep Study.”  Center for Health Design, http://www.healthdesign.org