Design Preferences

Van de Perre, Smet, Hanselaer, Dujardin, and Ryckaert evaluated the consequences of different lightscapes in windowless offices. They report that “A two-interval-forced-choice experiment was conducted with the 20 lighting scenes derived from five CCTs [correlated color temperatures] (2500–10 000 K) and four luminances (12–120 cd/m²). The results from 20 observers showed that a higher wall luminance significantly increased brightness.

Darda and colleagues probed how culture influences preference for art.  They share that they “we explored Northern American and Indian participants’ aesthetic judgments and preferences for abstract and representational artworks. . . . no evidence was found for an ingroup bias . . . when American abstract artworks were assigned with fictional American, Indian, Chinese, or Turkish artist names. Aesthetic ratings for artworks were similar across Indian and American participants, irrespective of the cultural label they were assigned. . . .

Aleem and Grzywacz studied how our aesthetic preferences change as time passes.  They determined that “A handful of studies that have measured aesthetic preferences at multiple moments show that preferences may change in as little as two weeks. . . . we measured aesthetic preferences for different colored objects at six-time points, spanning a month. We found that aesthetic preferences were not stable and tended to drift stochastically [randomly] over time. Small statistically significant drifts occurred already after 20 min, and large ones happened after 2 weeks. . . .

Merrill and associates studied musical preferences; it is likely that their findings are applicable more broadly. The investigators determined via an online survey that “analysis identified two profiles of explanatory strategies for disliked music. The highbrow profile included reasons such as the music being Too Simple, or Not Authentic, having No Impact on the listener, and a perceived Social Incongruence, and was mainly associated with a dislike of German schlager, traditional music, and pop.

Loodin and Thufvesson studied the responses of urban development professionals to various architectural styles. They found that “Rational design based on aesthetic principles from the 1930s dominates contemporary architecture and property development, contributing to a homogenous urban landscape. The aim of this paper is to examine how professionals involved in city centre development value different architectural styles. . . . a sample of . . . city centre managers . . .

Palumbo and colleagues studied the preferences of different groups for curved and straight design elements. They report that they “administered abstract stimuli consisting of irregular polygons (angular vs. curved) and patterns of colored lines (angular vs. curved), as well as concrete stimuli consisting of images of interior spaces. Preference for curvature was confirmed with abstract stimuli in all 3 groups [people with autism, quasi-expert students of design, control group].