Spaces for learning need to be carefully designed and managed—our brains perform much better in some places that others and our tired heads need opportunities to refresh if they’re going to continue to develop knowledge and skills. Applying what neuroscientists have learned about design-learning connections makes “lessons” more productive and positive experiences more likely.
Sirolo and team investigated how moving from private offices to an activity-based workplace influences work environment satisfaction one year after the move. They learned via data collected from people who had relocated from private offices to activity-based offices that “personnel’s criticisms concerned the reasons for the change, their opportunities to influence the office design and the extent to which their views were taken into account. Environmental satisfaction decreased after moving to the ABO.
Yildirim and colleagues set out to learn more about how design influences user assessments of workplaces. They investigated, via a survey distributed in Ankara, Turkey, “the effects of location of closed offices on the front facade, rear facade and side facade plans and the indoor layout (left and right users’ cabinets) on perceptual evaluations of users of physical environmental factors. . . . it was determined that office users on the front and side facades generally perceived more positively the offices’ environmental factors than office users on the back facade.
Llinares and colleagues studied how classroom wall color hue influences student performance. They determined via a virtual reality project that “Cold hues improve attention and memory performance. . . . The objective of the present study is to analyse the impact that warm and cold hue coloured classroom walls have on the cognitive attention and memory functions of university students. . . .
There's been much talk about workplace design as people return to work in corporate offices. A lot of neuroscience research has been thoughtfully applied over time to make those offices more likely to elevate wellbeing as well as performance. Let users know how you’ve put research to work in their offices by sharing the information in this article.
Workplace design can reduce the likelihood of worker burnout—neuroscience research shows how.
Rigorous research with users
Asano and colleagues learned that walking in hot outdoor environments can harm subsequent cognitive performance indoors; this finding supports creating more temperature controlled indoor walking areas in office complexes and similar locations. The research team reports that “In the experiments [conducted], a total of 96 participants took a mathematical addition test in an air-conditioned room before and after walking in an actual outdoor environment.
Abrams probed the experiences of people with ADHD working during the pandemic and her findings indicate how workplace design can support people with ADHD generally. Abrams states that “Working from home has also presented challenges for adults with ADHD, including dealing with the loss of boundaries—such as a dedicated workspace or an on-site supervisor—that help them avoid distractions and provide cues about when to stop and start tasks. . . . [mental health care] providers have used a mix of old and new strategies to help people with ADHD function well during the pandemic. . . .
Role of personal factors
