The idea of designing “functional inconveniences” into workplaces has been around for a long time. Some of the earliest inconveniences involved how people moved from place to place and circuitous paths were created to the cafeteria or from the parking lot or to the hub where most of the conference rooms were located.
These meandering routes were supposed to result in all sorts of people learning about their peers in ways that enhanced collaboration – and there is evidence that people who have more contact with each other are more likely to do high quality work together. Travel-related inconveniences definitely resulted in employees walking further than they otherwise might have.
A new era of research related to walking is underway – and this time research is tying walking at a comfortable, self-determined pace to all sorts of good things happening in our heads. Research has established, for example, that walking (just walking, not necessarily in nature) boosts our mood and the performance of our memory as well as our performance on creative tasks.
A new study has even more good things to say about the cognitive benefits of having been for a stroll. A press release from the University of California Irvine quotes Michael Yassa, a professor there, who co-lead a study whose findings suggest that, “Even short walking breaks throughout the day may have considerable effects on improving memory and cognition.”
The press release, describing the results of the Yassa co-lead study, states, “Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Japan’s University of Tsukuba found that even very light workouts can increase the connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage. In a study of 36 healthy young adults, the researchers discovered that a single 10-minute period of mild exertion can yield considerable cognitive benefits. Using high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging, the team examined subjects’ brains shortly after exercise sessions and saw better connectivity between the hippocampal dentate gyrus and cortical areas linked to detailed memory processing…The neuroscientists found that the level of heightened connectivity predicted the degree of recall enhancement.” This study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and other researchers participating in the project include Hideaki Soya, Kazuya Suwabe, and Kyeongho Byun.
Now that we know that walking at a comfortable pace not only supports thinking in all sorts of desirable ways, but actually enhances brain structure, it seems even more important to make the paths to the cafeteria, and parking lot, and conferences rooms NOT as short and direct as they might be and also to design spaces for walking into workplaces, inside and outside, whenever possible. A path outside might meander through natural habitats while an inside route might travel through a gallery with occasional artwork, at least in the perfect world. It also seems prudent to provide “shortcut” routes for people with broken legs, etc., who might be “transportationally” challenged.
Whatever the possibilities actually are in real world situations, it seems desirable to encourage people to walk whenever possible – it’s good for their brains as well as their waistlines.
“Now You Just Need to Remember to Exercise!” 2018. Press release, University of California, Irvine.
Sally Augustin, PhD, is the editor of Research Design Connections(www.researchdesignconnections.com).Research Design Connectionsreports on research conducted by social and physical scientists that designers can apply in practice. Insights derived from recent studies are integrated with classic, still relevant findings in concise, powerful articles. Topics covered range from the cognitive, emotional, and physiological implications of sensory and other physical experiences to the alignment of culture, personality, and design, among others. Information, in everyday language, is shared in a monthly subscription newsletter, an archive of thousands of published articles, and a free daily blog. 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.