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A New Method of Human Response Testing to Enhance the Design Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Abstract

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This paper presents a new method of human-response testing to enhance the success of designs. Rather than waiting until after a building is constructed to see how the design will affect human users, we developed a high-resolution virtual-reality platform to present design variations to the study participants. This technique allowed us to make very precise adjustments in design variables (e.g., the ceiling height, or the placement of windows) within the same overall structure, thereby obtaining more empirically rigorous comparisons than is possible in traditional post-occupancy studies of completed buildings. In addition, this approach allowed us to collect a variety of biometric data, such as EEG signals, heart rate, head motions, and other indicators of attention and stress, while the study participants interacted with the virtual environments. The overall outcome of this research method will be to improve the human quality of the built environment and to promote data-driven innovation in the design field.

Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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