The design of the spaces that we’re in and the objects that surround us matter a lot. They profoundly influence our lives. Colors, shapes, textures, scents, sounds, ceiling heights, and other features of our world have powerful psychological effects on us as human beings.
Design with Science can show you how to use what scientists have learned about the psychology behind our reactions to design to create places in which people flourish and objects humans cherish.
Design with Science applies environmental psychology. Environmental psychologists focus on people’s existence in the physical world and use rigorous scientific methods to study how features of objects and settings help determine whether we thrive or atrophy.
Environmental psychologists answer questions such as:
- What are the emotional effects of surface colors? Colors of light? How does where we grew up influence these responses?
- How do shapes (seen or felt) mold our experiences?
- How are personality and preferred design styles really related?
- How do we use our environments and possessions to communicate nonverbally? Why does that matter?
- How do sounds affect our mental state? What sorts of noises delight us? Frustrate us? Help us concentrate?
- How do room dimensions influence us psychologically?
- Why does smell matter? How can scents be used to help us learn (and remember) technical material? Exercise more vigorously and consistently? Avoid claustrophobia? Be creative? Feel healthier?
- How do textures influence us emotionally? Is it important whether we see them or feel them?
Tour your world with an environmental psychologist to see how design influences human experience. Take a look at the image on the Environmental Psychology in Action page. What are the psychological effects of being in this space? Have an object or space that you’d like an environmental psychologist to assess? Send us a photo of it. Look for your image and the science-based assessment of it here in the weeks to come.
You can use environmental psychology to design places and objects that you will use and value or professionally to create objects and spaces that will enhance other people’s lives.
Contact Design with Science to see how.