Image: erix! | Flickr

An interesting finding involving one of the ways in which people decide to take action, can be traced back to how long a person spends looking at each of the choices. As was reported in an article by Scientific American, called Buying Odds Increase for Products That Are Looked at Longer, shoppers within a store that are trying to decide between two items will ultimately choose the item which they looked at longest. By tracking their subject’s eye movements, researchers determined that items were chosen when the subject gazed upon the item they chose even just half a second longer. And this was the case 70 percent of the time.

Which Architectural Elements in Your Design are Time Sensitive?

If you think about this premise that what a subject gazes upon longest, ultimately plays a large role in how they make decisions and take action, then architecture has many places within which such a finding can provide great insight into how to leverage not only architectural design aesthetic, but also its ability to bring great value for its occupants. But one must ask…At what point does design for perception become design toward persuasion? And how can you as a designer use each to bring value to your occupants?

Think about this for such buildings as hospitals or schools, where so many decisions and choices are made everyday by people that work there, heal there or learn their. Then think for a minute about where within your designs you give occupants a design choice — like between taking an elevator, escalator or stairs. Might it be healthier for certain occupants to choose one over the other? And when?

In the end, this may be a primary purpose of an architectural feature that enhances a space, while at the same time being somewhat of a focal point. And when strung together, such architectural features make up the narrative of moments that lead to the choices that occupants make throughout their architectural journey — and hence, their decisions that make up their daily lives.

How might you incorporate such studies that give insight to your occupant’s possible eye tracking based behaviors, and the time they take to gaze at different architectural moments within your building? How might you use such findings to bring greater value to your occupants? Would you emphasize certain architectural features over others? And why?…To help them make healthier choices? To help them teach and learn better? Or to help meet your client’s overarching needs in more meaningful ways?

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

As you will find within the following slideshow, color can be used within architecture in soul-stirring and innovative ways. Color not only engages a building occupant by making real the beauty of function, but also invites them “in” to truly “touch” a space — perhaps at first with their eyes, but then with all of their senses as color becomes much more when it meets the eye.

So, how do you use color to “move” your building occupants?

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie
Image: wallyg | Flickr

An amazing artist is Piet Mondrian, who is known for painting Broadway Boogie Woogie. This painting is quite remarkable and one of its defining qualities is its ability to convey motion to its viewers. As if to deconstruct music, this painting makes use of color, pattern, geometry and sizing.

Consequently, Piet Mondrian has made an excellent and tangible example for us to better understand why we perceive motion when looking at his work. Much can be explained by delving into neuroscience.

Why We Perceive Motion in the Painting

In her book, Vision and Art (affiliate link), Harvard neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone explains why this painting appears to “move or jitter”. She explains that the yellow and gray squares are “close to equiluminant” and they are set against an off-white background.” (1)

You see, the luminance in color plays a special role in human perception. As Livingstone notes, the part of our visual process responsible for determining the location and motion of an object cannot perceive objects where their colors have “the same luminance” — they are equiluminant. (1)

Color present showing that you can see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Color removed in photoshop, showing that you cannot see yellow and gray squares

Image: profzucker | Flickr

Since the gray and yellow squares in Broadway Boogie Woogie have the same luminance, our visual system cannot distinguish their location or motion. Hence, they seem to move about. This concept was first illustrated in the book Vision and Art, but I have manipulated some photographs to convey this concept to you. (1)

As you can see, great artists’ paintings often “work” because they tap into certain aspects of the way we interpret information. By understanding such explanations, we can better interpret what works in existing masterpieces. In turn, we can learn a lot about how to design better for our future.

As architects we should be concerned with how and why occupants perceive as they move through our spaces. Delving deeper, and scientifically into what guides them and stops them, what they remember and later forget and what they want to see again.

Such probing questions will help you to understand how to design better because you will get to the root of why an architecture “works” — functionally and aesthetically.

Big questions with focused answers impact our understanding of how a culture and an individual uses space. Ultimately, we will also better comprehend why and how our architecture will be explained to others.

These are all keys to building for function and beauty.

Just for Fun

Just for fun, you can see a more modern interpretation of the impact Mondrian has with this painting. Take a look at the following video and see how someone just had to create an animation to bring what they perceive as motion into another form.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

(1) Livingstone, Margaret.Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. New York: Harry N. Abrahams, Inc. 2002

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman