Making your office look, smell, sound, feel and even taste good, too!
Good design looks great, yes – but why shouldn’t it also feel great,
smell great and sound great? We’ve all heard how the smell of freshly brewed
coffee can help sell a house, how spas use lavender to relax you, or how
supermarkets lure us in with the smell of freshly baked bread.
Until now, many office designers have focused on functionality or making
things look pretty and ignored the other senses. Things are changing, as
forward-thinking organisations are waking up to the benefits of Sensory Design.
So, what do we mean by Sensory Design? Well put simply it involves
incorporating sight, sound, touch, taste and smell into the workplace
environment. The best designs incorporate all or most of the five senses.
Let’s look at each one individually and the ways in which we can appeal
to that sense through workplace design.
Upon walking into a work space, SIGHT is undoubtedly the first of our senses to react to our surroundings.
Sight takes in everything from colours, shapes, patterns, lighting and the
actual size of a space.
All these elements can be used to evoke feelings and to influence
different outcomes, depending on what the end goal is. For example, Colours
have been scientifically proven to have a physiological influence on us and
colour Psychology is a popular design tool for promoting desired
behaviours.
Bright colours such as orange, yellow & lime green are stimulating
(and yes there is a connection with citrus fruits), these colours used in
common rooms or breakout spaces can aid interaction, lively discussions with
colleagues and decision making. Whereas if you want to provide a quiet place
where employees can concentrate on a project or take time out, the colours blue
and purple are associated with calm, promoting mental clarity, and creative
thinking. Using these colours in quiet spaces and wellness rooms can help
create a sense of tranquility.
Access to natural light also has a profound effect on employee’s well
being and productivity at work. Artificial light that is too bright can cause
headaches, where as lighting that is too dim can cause lack of focus and
drowsiness. A recent study by an American university found that there is “a
strong relationship between workplace daylight exposure and office workers’
sleep, activity and quality of life.”
Where possible, it is essential to allow natural light to flow into a
room. This is obviously easier to achieve in the early planning stages of a
building, however it is still possible in existing buildings too, by using
glass or Perspex partitions and mirrors in areas where windows are, thus
helping the natural light reach further.
Sight also considers the actual size of a space and the design elements
within this space can trigger different emotions. High ceilings and open plan
areas can give a sense of freedom and yet for others a large open space can
make them feel exposed and vulnerable. You can tackle this by dividing a space
up using booths, screens (such as plants), sofa’s and comfy chairs. This gives
both the sense of space but also privacy.
Sight leads us smoothly into the next sense and that is TOUCH. Often the sight of something can evoke the sensation of touching them
and in turn influence the emotion we associate with that texture. While visually appealing marble, plastic, glass and metal can be cool
and sterile, Wood, stone and plants appeal to our biological need to connect
with nature, and fibres such as velvet and wool we associate with being warm,
soft and cosy.
The key when designing office spaces is to incorporate a mixture of
these textures in order to balance our emotions. For example, a glass top
desk, forest effect wallpaper and bright coloured velvet chair, combine
efficiency, creativity and a sense of calm.
TASTE is harder to incorporate into design, but taste can affect your overall
view and you will associate the space with the experience. Put it this way, you
can be sitting in the most opulent of restaurants, but if the meal tastes awful
are you going to remember the meal or the décor? By associating a space with positive experiences, you can influence the
emotions. A coffee machine placed among a soft seating area, can encourage
breaks and social interaction between employees. A kitchen area or fresh fruit
on display can aid healthy eating at work, which in turn increases focus,
improves memory, motivation and productivity.
Closely linked to taste is the sense of SMELL and by far one of our strongest senses, as they can call up
memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously. This is because
olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system, the emotional and memory centre of
the brain.
A certain smell has the power to instantly transport us to a different
time and place, evoking emotions linked to that scent. Such as a certain
perfume or flower, may remind you of your grandma and evoke a sense of calm,
love and security.
It is no wonder that scent branding has become a huge marketing tool in
attracting and retaining customers. By using scent, brands can connect with
consumers on a deeper emotional level, resulting in a more memorable
experience. Brands that have found the right scent have seen a double
increase in sales.
The same can be incorporated into the workplace. Peppermint aids focus,
rosemary improves memory, and lemon increases accuracy. These scents can be
activated via diffusers, plants and displays of freshly cut flowers. There are
also high-tech services provided by scent marketing companies like ScentAir or
Air Aroma.
Finally, SOUND can have a
significant impact on an employee’s work performance, both from a stimulating
and a distracting aspect. Sound consultant Julian Treasure says that “Sound in a space affects us
profoundly. It changes our heart rate, breathing, hormone secretion, brain
waves, it affects our emotions and our cognition.”
The acoustics of a work space can often cause distractions and an
inability to concentrate on the task at hand. Busy, open plan offices often
have issues with sound travel. Plants, green dividers, booths, modular pods are
a great way of absorbing sound in a large open space.
Creating quiet rooms enables employees to concentrate and focus when
required. It is possible to pipe music into rooms to evoke different
emotional responses. For instance, the sound of birds can appeal to our need to
connect with nature. Where the sound of waves played in a wellness room, can
aid our sense of calm and tranquility.
Conclusion
Our senses can work for us or against us. By using all 5 senses together
in design, we have the ability to harness positive emotions and experiences,
which in turn lead to a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce.
That is why, at Hi Design we always incorporate sensory design in
everything we do, whether that be using simply using different colours and
textures, strategically placing coffee machines, controlling sound levels with
clever baffling or placing a ‘focus’ scented reed diffuser in a quiet room.
So, why just create an office when you could create
experiences!? Touch every emotion, one sense at a time, you can create a
space that doesn’t just look good, but functions well and feels amazing too.
Hi Design ‘work spaces that work’
