Sound and Vision

Briefing Sound and Vision Sound and Vision Why the distracted workplace isn’t just about noise Briefing Sound and Vision Contents Foreword Mark Barrell 3 The core challenge 4 How people respond 5 The psychology of distraction 5 Not just about volume 6 Personality and sources of noise 7 Activity based working 8 Focussing on functionality 9 Solutions 10 About Boss Design 12 2 Briefing Sound and Vision Foreword The idea of a cocktail party might be a bit people typically have up to four zones of dated, but it is the perfect metaphor for comfort. These are dependent on the level of describing one aspect of the most common intimacy with the other person, and are complaints about modern office design. classified as ‘intimate’, ‘personal’, ‘social’ and ‘public’. Invade those spaces and it’s trouble. An idea called the cocktail party effect has been known to neuroscientists for decades. It In short, we’re making more noise than ever describes how we are able to filter out a large before and we’re closer together while doing it. amount of noise and focus almost completely It’s a perfect storm. on just one source of sound. So, while we It's tempting to think that the core problem we clutch our Manhattan, we can listen intently to must address is the amount of sound in the just one person and ignore the babble of voices workplace. And there is some truth in this, of that might otherwise drown them out. We can course. The most obvious idea that arises from tune in to the source we think is important and this is that offices are too often designed for tune out everything else. the eyes and not the ears. The underlying principle is that we respond not When you accept this premise, the obvious just to the amount of noise in our solution to the problem of office noise is to try surroundings, but also other factors, many of to reduce it with acoustic pods, screens, baffles them unconsciously. and quiet rooms. These are essential elements Even so, if you ask most office workers what in a modern work setting yet it is important to they find most irritating and unproductive recognise they are part of a solution that about their workplace. They’re most likely by acknowledges the complexities of the issue. some distance to suggest that it is sound. The The best solution is one that addresses all of issue has intensified over the past few years the senses as well as the unconscious. We are with the proliferation of mobile devices and fortunate that we know far more about these because the amount of space allocated to each complex and interrelated factors than ever person has fallen substantially as firms adopt before and the designed solution to them in more space intensive and agile workplace the workplace. This paper sets out to introduce models. them. I hope you By most measures, space allocation per person enjoy it. has dropped dramatically in recent years. This Mark Barrell can be problematic because it can cause us Design Director Boss Design problems at a visceral level. Proxemics, is the study of personal space and its originator cultural researcher Edward T Hall claimed that 3 Briefing Sound and Vision Sound and vision The core challenge In most office feedback surveys, they lack quiet space for meetings face at any one point in time. the two biggest causes of or for individual focussed work. Meanwhile, a study of 11,000 dissatisfaction cited by occupants The statistics are quite shocking. workers carried out by office are temperature and sound – or in According to one of the latest design firm Unispace found that technical terms thermal comfort major studies into the issue, 60 percent of an average working and noise. Building standards and carried out by researchers at the day is devoted to individual task- some of the core tenets of office University of California, a typical focused work; 25 percent to design and furniture specification office worker is interrupted as collaboration, 7 percent to set out some basic principles often as every three minutes. To socialising and around the same about these factors, but the issue make matters worse, it takes us for learning. is complicated by the fact they are also the two When it comes to the problem The research found that the aspects of an office most issue of noise has actually sensitive to personal of sound and distraction, the become much worse over differences and the majority of both executives and the last two years, with unconscious biases we all more workers complaining possess. employees now report near- compared to the same research conducted in Individual preferences constant noise 2016. can be exacerbated all too quickly in those poorly designed up to 23 minutes to be able to Survey respondents flagged offices in which people are too return to the task at hand. noise (15 percent) as the primary closely packed and in which they cause of inefficiency during the This is particularly a problem in have little or no personal control. working week, a number that has an age in which the primary goal The thermostat or an open risen by four per cent in just 12 of the workplace is to encourage window can become flashpoints months. Second to this was a lack collaboration. Most of us do not just as quickly as the insensitive of quiet areas (13 percent) and a accomplish things on our own, but use of phones. lack of privacy (9 percent). rather we often rely on colleagues When it comes to the problem of to contribute. According to data As far as offices are concerned, sound and distraction, the majority from workplace researchers it is other people that are most of both executives and employees Leesman, on average 34 percent likely to be the source of now report near-constant noise in of all people present in a distractions, acoustic, visual and their workplace and many say workspace are interacting face-to- even olfactory. 4 Briefing Sound and Vision How people respond employees saying they lack quiet The same survey also reported space for focused work, which has that people perform 16 per cent A recent comprehensive study a negative effect on their better in memory tests and 40 per published by Oxford Economics productivity, satisfaction and cent better in mental arithmetic and Plantronics confirms that the wellbeing. tests, when they aren’t disrupted problem is becoming increasingly by undue noise. Unsurprising, pretty much all (96 acute and that a large number of percent) of executives see offices are not designed in a way employee productivity as critical to that addresses the problem, their financial performance, yet The psychology of distraction meaning that people take their just 40 percent understand the link own steps to address the issue. This is not just a physical problem. between noise, distraction and 75 per cent of perceived noise In fact, three quarters of productivity. A mere 6 percent of annoyance can be attributed to employees say they need to take executives report having an office personal and psychological factors walks outside and 32 percent with noise mitigating features. according to acoustic products listen to headphones to focus and This is perhaps surprising given manufacturer Saint Gobain block out distraction, while what we know about how Ecophon. employees in the noisiest office acoustics affect performance. environments are more likely to The main distinction to draw is According to a report from the say they’ll actually swap their job between sound and noise, and Commission for Architecture and for a working culture that offers this has a strong subjective the Built Environment (CABE – fewer distractions. component. What one person now merged with the Design might think of as racket, another The report also found that noise Council), people enjoy a 38 per person might find stimulating or and distractions are having a cent improvement in their ability to enjoyable. Although this is negative impact on employee perform many tasks if they work in subjective there are some rules wellness, productivity and financial a workplace where acoustic about why we have different performance, with 63 percent of conditions have been optimised. perceptions. These include factors 5 Briefing Sound and Vision such as a person’s evaluation of background might not be the necessity of the noise, the considered noise if they contain Workplace conversations in the meaning attached to the noise, what the listener thinks is useful whether it can be controlled and information, whereas irrelevant background might not be its context – in particular whether it conversation will be perceived as considered noise if they contain is normal and expected, such as noise and so be annoying and useful information the sound of a printer or the distracting. background hum of lighting and air -conditioning. Writing in 2014, Professor Dylan Jones of the University of Cardiff A study published in the British Not just about volume sums up the problem: “Distraction Journal of Psychology has A 2015 meta-analysis of over a is the price we pay for being able highlighted the role that ‘irrelevant hundred research papers carried to focus on an event of interest noise’ plays not only in disrupting out by the environmental while also gleaning some work, but also in increasing stress psychologist Dr Nigel Oseland information from other sources of levels and decreasing job found that just 25 percent of the information. This arrangement has satisfaction. effect of noise in the office could the undoubted advantage of In a 2010 TED talk titled “Why be attributed to its volume.

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