A new Steelcase study, conducted with the University of Wisconsin – Madison found that providing cocoons of visual privacy was enough to help people focus within noisy open offices.
News outlets worldwide pan the open office, claiming that it’s stressing us out with too much distraction and too little privacy. The data tell a slightly different story — providing more areas of visual privacy can mitigate some of the distractions that frustrate people at work. When organizations balance the needs of individuals with the needs of teams, the open plan can be an environment where everyone thrives.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
To take a deeper look into the open-plan’s effect on work performance, Steelcase WorkSpace Futures Researcher, Caroline Kelly led a study measuring sustained attention — a core component of any work process, signaling engagement and focus.
Kelly collaborated with the Center for Healthy Minds (CHM) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison — a global leader in scientific research on the brain and emotions. Dr. Richard Davidson, CHM’s founder and director as well as author of “The Emotional Life of the Brain” was intrigued with studying the relationship between the physical environment and wellbeing. Elena Patsenko, a research scientist at the center, was tasked with helping to conceptualize the study with Kelly and acted as an expert guide throughout the process.
Almost 70 study participants completed the Sustained Attention Response Task (SART), a test widely used to measure how well people can maintain their focus amidst distractions. By completing a “Go/No-Go” task—which asks participants to press or not press a button, based on a specific cue — researchers can evaluate the participants’ ability to focus based on their response times, error rate and time between errors.
Participants were studied in two open-plan settings:
A shared bench with no boundaries
A Brody WorkLounge (an individual work environment with a wrap-around screen that provides shielding)
Each participant was tested at both the bench and the Brody, limiting variables that could affect results. To simulate an authentic office setting, two participants sat next to each other at the bench and typical open office noise played in the background.
THE RESULTS
The results showed that providing visual privacy in a setting like Brody helps people concentrate significantly better than sitting in completely open areas.
While seated in Brody, participants had significantly slower response times compared to those seated at the bench — which is actually a good thing. Slower response times indicate concentration, focus and engagement. They also made fewer errors and had less variation between their response times, indicating a consistent state of focus.
While it may sound counterintuitive that slower response times are better, Patsenko explains why. “Increased reaction times are usually indicative of the participants slipping into automatic or mindless responding, without taking time to process or identify the stimulus.” She also notes that increased reaction times are associated with higher error rates, mind wandering and distraction.