InformeDesign® Releases Implications on Color in Office Environments

A recent issue of Implications, InformeDesign's monthly newsletter on design and human behavior, reviews a body of research on the use of color in office environments. How color affects workers, it turns out, is actually not very well understood. "Although color is an integral part of design, very little empirical evidence exists to support some of the popularly held ideas about the effects of color on task performance, worker productivity and human psychology," says author Nancy Kwallek, Ph.D., a professor and director of the interior design program in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. Contrary to what one might expect, for example, studies Kwallek conducted found that although a color scheme may affect a worker's mood, there was no correlation between mood and productivity. Kwallek also discusses some recent studies that have affected popular notions about color and behavior. More information is available at http://www.informedesign.umn.edu/