Sensory Science applies
information from psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology, and other
sciences to create great places. Places where people are relaxed, in a good
mood, creative, or better able to learn, for starters. PlaceCoach®, Inc. brings
Sensory Science to your life.
Sensory Science changes lives. For
example:
Color choices are critical. Colors influence our attitudes and behaviors in a space. Some
details: a less saturated and moderately bright shade of green is a great color
for the walls of a workplace/office. it provides an optimal level of stimulation
and is culturally appropriate for this sort of space. Saturation and brightness
have more of an influence on our psychological response to a color than hue (hue
is the wavelength of a color, this is the name we give to a shade, such as green
or red). Within any set of colors with the same saturation and brightness, we
have multiple hues we can select from to achieve a desired psychological effect. We also
have culturally specific associations to particular hues. Take green, for
instance: in some cultures green signifies wholesomeness, and in others
disease.
Smell is important to us.
Many specific scents have been shown to influence us in particular ways. The
smell of almonds reduces tension. Lemon enhances performance on intellectual
tasks, while the smell of peppermint has the same influence on physical ones.
Smelling jasmine while you sleep doesn't help you fall asleep faster (lavender
does that), but it does help you sleep more deeply, and it improves your
performance throughout the next day.
Sound influences us in
primal ways. Our heart starts to beat in time to the sounds we hear. When our
heart beats more slowly we are calmer, so slow paced music relaxes us,
particularly if it uses lots of lower pitched sounds.
Light matters a lot.
Daylighting a space has tremendously positive psychological effects on us, but
patterns and colors of light are also important. People prefer lighting
systems that produce lighter and darker areas on the ground; this comforting
lighting pattern is similar to the darker and lighter areas experienced while
sitting under a tree. People perform short-term recall and problem-solving tasks
significantly better in warm white light than in cool white
light.
Even what we're walking on
matters. Walking on cobblestones is relaxing and opens up our minds to think
more broadly.
Our personality influences
how we respond to a space. Sensory scientists have identified many aspects
of personality that should be reflected in environmental design. For example:
People who draw their energy from within themselves flourish in a different sort
of space than people who derive energy from the world around themselves. People differ in the extent to which they think they direct their own lives, for example, - and that influences the places
that they find most desirable. Different people also thrive with different
amounts of different sorts of privacy and environmental complexity.
