There’s a lot more to design than you might think. The design of the building you’re in can change everything from the way you work, to the way you feel, to the way you move. Heidan Construction is here today to talk about how design choice can improve productivity levels. Here’s how it happens:
Color Matters
One of the first things that can affect your behavior in design is color. Color is a surprisingly effective tool to alter people’s behavior. That doesn’t mean you can control people’s individual actions, but you can certainly control their attitudes, even just a little bit. That’s because color has a profound effect on the human brain. Our brains associate different colors with different needs and moods. If you take the effects of different colors into account when designing a workspace, you can optimize work in each area – even different types of work.
- Calming blues can help lower stress. If you’ve ever been stressed about work, you know how stifling it can be. Being stressed about work can actually make working harder. That’s why choosing calming blue tones for high-stress work environments can keep employees calmer, happier, and more productive.
- Bright oranges boost energy levels. This true of both orange and red. They actually can raise stress, but in a good way. A small amount of stress is what encourages people to speed up and put more energy into their work. It gives the illusion of pressure, just enough that the brain kicks things into high gear. For physically active or fast-paced work, these bright, warm colors can really do the trick.
- Middle-tone greens can be a happy medium. Soft, earth greens help keep the balance between calm and productive. This is a great color for clinics, medical offices, and even home offices.
Improve Productivity with Lighting
The next thing that boosts productivity is lighting. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to feel sleepy in a room with dim, warm lighting? That’s because this subtle, warm lighting is similar to the hour before dusk. Our bodies equate it with the setting of the sun and the end of the day. It signals to us that it’s time to sleep.
On the other hand, bright, clear light does a great job waking us up. Have you ever sat outside when the sun rises? Perhaps you’ve had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work? You might have noticed that the morning sunlight is bright and somewhat cold in color. That is the exact reason why bright lamps or overhead lights with little warmth to them tend to wake us up. They aren’t the coziest lights, but they sure are good at tricking our brains into staying awake.
If you want to talk to experts in the field about how you can incorporate these design choices into your next build project, give us a call. Heidan Construction looks forward to helping you make your next work space as functional as possible.
