LITMIR.BIZ

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to our circadian rhythms.

      Light can be darker and lighter, too. Professionals have all sorts of fancy tools to tell how bright or dark a light is, and everyone else just has eyes. What you need to know is that as light gets brighter, our energy levels climb. Intensely bright light works well for operating heavy machinery and doing surgery. The light of a single candle is great for a quiet conversation. Light-colored walls and glossy surfaces make lights seem a little brighter, and that means they are more energizing, something to remember when you’re picking materials for surfaces. Lights on dimmers or with a few preset settings allow you to select the light intensities that work for you in a particular moment.

      Humans are most comfortable in spaces with certain distributions of light. Allover bright or dark is not what makes us feel good. Lighter colors on walls makes spaces seem bigger, and positioning pot lights in ceilings and other similar “luminaires” so that they bathe walls in light also makes a space seem larger—which can be a good thing or not, depending on the true size of the space and what’s planned.

      “Dappled” light is a big hit with humans; we feel good when we bask in it. Dappled light is slightly darker in some places and slightly lighter in others, just like the light that comes through the branches of a leafy tree on a sunny day. Tabletop lamps are better options in socializing areas than overhead lights that bathe an entire room in a blanket of light that is the same color and intensity everywhere. Pools of light also create zones in a space. Those zones may be dedicated to a particular task, such as dining, playing cards, or meeting to discuss a new advertising campaign or other brainstorming , and that’s a good thing. They indicate a territory, and when we’re in a territory we control, we’re happier, more relaxed, and more productive. People in the same light zone tend to socialize with each other.

      Science has shown that it’s useful to subtly vary the color and intensity of the light in your home and workplace to mirror the color and intensity cycles of light outdoors. This helps keep your circadian rhythms in sync with the world around you and your mood good. That means warmer light is best during morning and evening hours and cooler light works well midday. Light outdoors is brightest at noon, and light inside should also be most intense then.

      Visual Complexity (Be Brave, Read This Section)

      The visual complexity of an environment has a significant effect on how we feel when we’re there. Visual complexity is determined by the number of colors, shapes, and other visual elements present and their symmetry and organization.

      The bottom line of all of the research that’s been done is that it’s generally best for humans to be in spaces with moderate visual complexity. We’re most relaxed and comfortable in a space with moderate visual complexity—too much or too little visual complexity is unpleasant and makes us feel tense. Our brains also work better in spaces with moderate visual complexity, even when we’re as young as three years old. We also prefer art and visual patterns (say, on wallpaper) with moderate visual complexity.

      Spaces that are more than moderately complex energize us. Higher energy levels are better in an exercise area, for example.

      “Moderate visual complexity” is a phrase that has no real meaning to the humans on the planet who aren’t environmental psychologists, so examples are in order. A residential interior created by Frank Lloyd Wright has moderate visual complexity. The interior of the Meyer May home, designed by Wright, is moderately complex visually, and so is Taliesin in Wisconsin, another Wright-designed home and one he lived in himself. Images of both of these homes are available online.

      If you are trying to create moderate visual complexity, the best way to determine the complexity of a space is to visualize one of Wright’s residential interiors, or another a space known to have moderate visual complexity, and then mentally compare the complexity of the two. This may sound like a dubious way to proceed, but it works.

      The number of patterns on surfaces makes the single largest contribution to how visually complex a place is. To manage complexity, all of the patterns in any room or other defined space should always use the same select set of colors. Patterns used together should all feature the same few shades of brown and blue, for example. To qualify as “moderately complex visually,” a space needs to feature just a few patterns: few being two or three if the third is very similar to one of the first two. So, the upholstery on your sofa and your curtains can be patterned, but that’s it. Maybe a rug can be patterned if the upholstery and curtain patterns are very similar—however, no patterned wallpaper. Some PlaceTypes can tolerate slightly higher levels of visual complexity; read on to see if you have one of those PlaceTypes. Patterns that are themselves moderately visually complex feature a limited number of families of hues and shapes, three of each.

      Places that are more complex visually also have lots of stuff scattered across their horizontal surfaces. Furniture, which rests on the floor, is some of this stuff. Photographs in lovely frames perched on sideboards, glass sculptures inherited from Aunt Milly, and wonderful artworks created by Teddy in preschool also contribute to visual complexity.

      The number of patterns on surfaces makes the single largest contribution to how visually complex a place is.

      It’s important that you have things around you that have meaning for you—just not too many of them at any one time. Most of the horizontal furniture surfaces in your home should not have anything on them. Since there are fewer feet of horizontal space in smaller homes than larger ones, and since every room needs a few things that show that it’s yours—photographs, souvenirs from travels, items inherited from your grandmother—it’s not possible to set an exact number of the horizontal furniture surfaces in your home that should not have anything resting on them. To find what level of “horizontal coverage” works best for you, take all of your mementos, photos, etc., off of the tabletops, bookshelves, and so forth in a space. Books can stay on bookshelves, but remove all the other stuff that’s found its way onto the shelves. This process will probably make you feel tense. Start to add back single items to the furniture surfaces one by one, and wait for a minute or so between additions. When you find yourself breathing normally again, stop adding items. You’ve found your object-space happy zone.

      Wall art and photographs should not cover more than 50 percent of the wall spaces, not counting the wall space behind furniture. To keep visual complexity in check, when 50 percent of the wall space will be covered, the images shown should be few and simple—a swirl of blue representing a wave, not a detailed painting of that wave showing sea creatures and vegetation, for example. If a detailed image is used on a wall, fewer images should be used and more wall space left blank. Mirrors are equivalent to a very complex image.

      Clutter is the stack of magazines you plan to read, the pile of pictures waiting for frames, the reports that need to be filed, and the four sweaters lying across the first chair you pass as you enter your home. It is stuff you want and have good reasons to keep, but that just hasn’t found its way to its where it needs to be. Empty pizza boxes and dishes that need to be washed are trash and cleaning that need to get done; they need to be dealt with for biological reasons.

      The reason why clutter is so stressful for humans is because it amps up the visual complexity in our world. Keeping clutter in check is a reason to make sure you have enough drawers and cabinets and to ensure that no one can see what’s in them. If you place something in a drawer or cabinet but you can still see it in its new resting place, you’ve accomplished nothing clutter-wise.

      Clutter reduces well-being and degrades professional cognitive performance. People are in better moods in places that are more organized than disorganized. Clutter and visual disorder have an insidious effect. Clutter and disorganization degrade the self-control of all who encounter them as well as people’s ability to follow rules. If you’re trying to avoid the Halloween candy that made its way into your home at the end of October, your odds of success fall with each wayward sock, file folder, and magazine cluttering up your kitchen. If you want people entering your home to neatly stow their coats and boots, make sure there are compartments, shelves, or something similar in place so that your entry space seems orderly. The same is true for laundry rooms—if you want people

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