As some people return to working onsite, for at least part of the time, there are scores of issues that need to be resolved. Many of these are tied to “germ welfare.” For example, we’ll learn how often surfaces touched need to be cleaned, really, and what sort of elevator etiquette are actually required to keep riders healthy.
We do already know lots about the design of the spaces to which people should return regardless of how outstanding concerns are alleviated – for example, whatever the rules of social distancing are and however they evolve. Science-informed design makes it clear how workplaces can support group-based problem solving, generally, and also specific aspects of group work, such as creative thinking, for instance. For many organizations, these sorts of group activities will be some of the prime uses of future company managed workplaces, although not the only ones that will take place there.
As a result of rigorously conducted research that has been published in peer-reviewed journals (i.e., after methodology, analyses, and conclusions drawn were evaluated by trained professionals not involved in conducting the research being assessed), we know a great deal about how workplaces should be designed, regardless of steps taken to thwart disease spread.
Scientists have determined, for example, that certain surface colors increase the likelihood that we’ll think more creatively (short answer, choose green). The same color effects have been found reliably in a number of studies conducted using all sorts of different scenarios. They will hold whether or not people are wearing a mask or working six feet from each other. There are pre-requisites for this “green effect,” however. People can only think creatively about topics with which they are familiar. Seeing green surfaces is not some sort of magic that leads people who don’t know anything about quantum physics to develop creative new insights about quantum physics, for instance. Researchers have identified a full range of sensory and psychological-sociological conditions (such as environmental control) that make creative thinking more or less likely.
Similarly, regarding group work generally, investigators have, over the last few decades, learned a lot about how the physical environment can enhance collaboration. For example, when the front edges of chairs are at right angles to each other, people are more likely to build positive relationships via discussions, because they can easily make eye contact and gracefully stop making eye contact, as desired and required. This configuration is going to “work” no matter how far people are sitting from each other. Body orientations are just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to what investigators found out pre-COVID that continues to be relevant post-COVID.
There are clearly many unknowns that we will need to work together to resolve as offices are re-populated – but there are already lots of things that researchers have learned about how workplaces can support human performance and wellbeing that we can apply in the new at-work worlds being created – which makes life more straightforward for all of us (all while boosting our confidence!) and better for everyone who will work at corporate managed worksites.
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.