Salvador, in the course of a furniture design project, completed a literature review focused on the psychological implications of experiencing wooden materials. He reports that “A literary review-based study revealed wooden materials in interiors and objects to have a positive psychological influence in humans, with a pacifying and relaxing effect.”
C. Salvador. 2019. “Human Interaction, Emotion and Sustainability: Designing Wooden Children’s Furniture.” In F. Rebelo and N. Soares (eds.) Advances in Ergonomics in Design, AHFE 2018 International Conference on Ergonomics in Design, Orlando, FL, Springer International Publishing, Cham Switzerland, pp. 599-606.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.