Color POV Tool

corporate_restoration

You've just worked your 60th hour and it is Wednesday. You just received your 100th email and it is only 10:00am. You've been on the phone so long that you have a persistent ringing in your ear. You are a member of the most productive workforce in the history of the world... and you are exhausted.

Can design really provide a meaningful solution to our collective fatigue? While researchers in cognition and psychology have long known about the debilitating effects of stress and overwork on human performance, cognition, and overall wellness, combating this stress and fostering meaningful recovery through design has been difficult. This is, in part, because little is known within the design community about affected cognitive mechanisms and how they are damaged or repaired. Researchers and designers, however, are beginning to form a shared understanding of how the designed environment can be restorative.

Researchers at the University of Michigan suggest that cognitive fatigue can be effectively treated with periods of restoration that involve a change in attention, location, or focus. Attention is either Involuntary or Directed. Involuntary Attention, such as when you are engaged in a task that you enjoy, is interesting, or otherwise mesmerizes you, has little associated cognitive costs. Directed Attention, such as when you are concentrating on a task that is burdensome, not enjoyable, or otherwise uninteresting, places a high cost on your cognitive capacity (Kaplan 2001). They suggest that there is a cognitive control mechanism that allows people to use Directed Attention (and thus get things done) without being sidetracked or distracted by other more interesting pursuits. The catch: this inhibitor control mechanism wears out and as we become more fatigued our thinking is muddled and we become easily distracted. Accordingly, the best way to restore this mechanism is simply not to use it (Kaplan 2001).

Human beings instinctively pursue this restoration process by seeking to "get away" when things get stressful. Sometimes a walk around the block is enough to provide a sense of relief as attention wanders freely and involuntarily. Not surprisingly, the natural environment may possess the most recuperative power. Researchers have found some evidence that the presence of plants in the interior environment can lead to improvements in overall well being, productivity, and attentiveness (Lohr, Pearson-Mims, et al.). These results support the assertion that the natural environment provides a rich palette of sensory stimuli ideally suited for the recuperation of Directed Attention (Kaplan 2001).

Corporations and their designers are instinctively addressing the issue of "getting away" as they assign usable square footage to informal, shared refresh areas in their workspaces. Just as the natural environment provides a sensory space that provides relief to our tired brains, designers can provide restorative environments using form, color, texture, sound, smell, and tone.

You have just answered your 101st email. You have just put your phone on 'do-not-disturb'. It's time to rest your inhibitors.

Kaplan, S. "Meditation, Restoration, and the Management of Mental Fatigue." Environment and Behavior, 33 No. 4 (July 2001), 480-506

Lohr, V.I., C.H. Pearson-Mims, and G.K. Goodwin. "Interior plants may improve worker productivity and reduce stress in a windowless environment." Journal of Environmental Horticulture, 4:2 (1996), 97-100.