Workplaces that work provide a variety of spaces to support choice and personal preference in when and where work gets done. Our approach to delivering these environments starts with a people-first focus and is supported by data and research to ensure that we are making design decisions that will best serve our client and those who will work in the new space. An important element of the user experience is understanding human nature and the way we’re wired to inhabit a space as well as work and interact with those around us. This is where environmental psychology adds an invaluable layer of intelligence to the design process. To explore the ways in which space influences behaviors, we sat down with Sally Augustin, PhD, founder and principal of Design with Science. As we learn from Sally, the thread that unites her work with workplace clients and across other sectors is an interest in people and how they think and behave. There are patterns in people’s behavior—many with roots back to our very distant ancestors—that can, and should, inform the design process.
As workplace designers and strategists, our goal is to best align people and place to drive performance. We appreciate that we’re designing for a wide variety of personality types in any organization and our challenge is to create a space that is supportive of the diverse collective. Have you been able to draw clear connections between personality types and preferences in the workplace?
Sally Augustin: I think the best starting point is the difference between the experience of extraverts and introverts in the workplace. While we’re all somewhere on the continuum between the two extremes with a blend of different personality factors, there are many generalizations that we can apply to these two groups. For context reasons, let’s define both: extraverts are energized or get their drive to move forward from the people and places around them. Introverts get the same sort of energy boost from their own inner world and thoughts.
As a whole, extraverts don’t process all the sensory information available to them, while introverts register much more of what’s going on around them. As a result, an environment that an extravert might find optimally stimulating is one that can be overwhelming for an introvert. That said, both groups will, to varying degrees, be distracted by nearby conversations in languages they understand and will pay attention to the movements of people near to them. We can’t help but do this. Our brains developed eons ago to optimize our survival, making it nearly impossible to ignore the things happening around us. Introverts and extraverts face similar challenges when they need to do work that requires focus and concentration, and they need workspaces that align with not only what they think they need and want, but also what they actually need to be truly effective.