Workplace

Bright lights are often used to increase alertness.  Are they useful?

Nittono and his colleagues investigated “the effects of viewing cute images on subsequent task performance.” 

Delmas and Pekovic have found that employees of firms with environmentally responsible policies are more productive than people working at firms that aren’t similarly oriented. 

Trying to design to make healthy eating more likely?

Office design can’t guarantee that workers won’t feel lonely, but providing opportunities for employees to meet casually and interact informally can make loneliness less likely.  

Dewar and her colleagues make the case for wakeful resting, a state that can be supported by design.

Many workplaces, as well as other assorted other spaces, are designed with the implicit or explicit understanding that people in them who are trying to focus their thoughts will do so while listening to something over earphones that allows them to isolate themselves from nearby others.  

Lo, Peters, and Kok investigated energy-conservation in workplaces. 

Research by Huang and colleagues indicates that direction of commute/travel has a significant influence on relationships with others.  

Bernstein investigated the implications of workers being visible to their co-workers in a Chinese factory.