Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain – NYT, Aug 2010
“Walking in the woods is better than walking in the city for thinking”
The 4 ways sound affects us – Julian Treasure, TED Talk, Jul 2009 (video at the top of this page)
Phsyiological – sound affects hormones, breathing, heart rate and brain waves.
Pyschological – music is the most powerful form of sound that affects our emotional state. Natural sounds can also have an effect. Most people are relaxed by the sound of birds singing. The lack of birds singing usually means trouble…
Cognitive -we have a small amount of bandwidth for processing auditory input. Can’t listen to two conversations at once. Is why working in a noisy office disrupts productivity… by 66%! One third as productive in open plan rooms than working in quiet spaces. Wearing headphones listening to birds singing can help…
Behavioural – at simplest, we move away from unpleasant sounds (e.g. drill) and towards pleasant sounds. Bad sound damages health. Sales can drop by 28% in retail stores with inappropriate soundscapes. People will leave shops faster or simply turn around at the door.
Music is the most powerful sound there is – because we recognise and associate with it very quickly. e.g. Jaws theme. Brands make sound: Product sound (Apple, Windows), Logo sound, Brand music, Advertising sounds, Telephone sound.
Four golden rules for commercial sound: make it congruent (support visual signs, not conflict), make it appropriate to the situation, make it valuable (people should gain something from hearing it), test and test again to check outcomes are what you want.
Open plan offices are making workers sick – Dr Vinesh Oommen, Queensland University, Jan 2009
In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.
The high level of noise causes employees to lose concentration, leading to low productivity, there are privacy issues because everyone can see what you are doing on the computer or hear what you are saying on the phone, and there is a feeling of insecurity.
The research found that the traditional design was better – small, private closed offices. The problem is that employers are always looking for ways to cut costs, and using open-plan designs can save 20 per cent on construction.
Coping with Speech Noise in the Modern Workplace – Earl Vickers, The Sound Guy Inc. Jan 2009
In the workplace, bad acoustical design can increase stress and reduce productivity. At any given time, a cubicle worker may be overhearing one or more phone conversations, water cooler chats, impromptu meetings, bull sessions, and even co-workers muttering at their computers. These distractions often drown out our own thoughts, turning us into involuntary eavesdroppers.
“Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, it still claims the largest share of office furniture sales — $3 billion or so a year — and has outlived every ‘office of the future’ meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture.” - J. Schlosser, “Cubicles: The great mistake,” Fortune Magazine, 2006 March
‘”Would it be smart to save $5,000 over the course of a year by putting a highly valued, expensive employee in open space, where that person won’t do the best possible job? We don’t think so… We believe strongly that the nature of a person’s work should dictate decisions about space — in other words, form should follow function. We’ve found that software developers do their best work in private, quiet spaces — hence the private offices in Redmond. But our sales and marketing people work in a mixture of private and open spaces…” Nick MacPhee, Microsoft - J. Vischer, “Will This Open Space Work?” Harvard Business Review, 1999 May-June
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