Crossan and Salmoni’s work confirms previous studies which have determined that nature experiences are mentally refreshing. The research team reports that “Attention restoration theory (ART) predicts that top-down processing during everyday activities can cause attentional fatigue and that bottom-up processing that occurs when people experience nature will be restorative. This study exposed participants to three different conditions . . .
A press release from Drexel indicates that plants may not be as effective at cleaning indoor air as thought. This finding does not relate to plants’ ability to support cognitive refreshment, professional performance, and creativity, for example, as reported previously by Research Design Connections. The Drexel team (Waring and Cummings) found that “Plants can help spruce up a home or office space, but claims about their ability to improve the air quality are vastly overstated. . . .
Recently completed research confirms that humans are indeed fascinating creatures and that their sensory systems work in intriguing ways. Murugesu states that “The olfactory bulb, a structure at the very front of the brain, plays a vital role in our ability to smell. Or, at least, so we thought.
Crede and team evaluated how effective different sorts of landmarks are at helping people find their way through a space. They define global landmarks as visible throughout a trip while local landmarks can be seen at specific points and not continuously. Local landmarks are “sequentially visible” while global landmarks are “simultaneously visible.” The investigators lreport that “our results have direct practical implications for the design of future digital navigation assistance systems that would support survey knowledge acquisition even while a navigator is multi-tasking. . .
A Glaveanu-lead team has studied the implications of working with others or alone on creative and practical thinking. Their findings have implications for the sorts of spaces (individual/for use by two people/etc.) provided in a variety of settings, for example, and also for managing the design process, for instance. The researchers report that “the aim of this article is to examine the creative process in the case of individuals and dyads in relation to the originality and practicality of their ideas. . . .
Integrating neuroscience research findings reveals that design-related experiences are processed
Physical design can influence how things taste, literally. Cognitive science research has tied p
Curvy seems both better and shorter
Intensities related
Designing sustainably and for wellbeing, linked
