Can The Colour Of Your Office Affect Productivity?
If you’ve ever worked in an office where the walls are dull and boring, you’ve probably already witnessed first hand how your productivity seems to take a nose dive.
Even the most productive of people have their work suffer because of their working environment, and according to many research sources, the colour of an office seems to be to blame.
Bland is Boring
The notion that colour affects productivity isn’t a new thing. In fact, research conducted by the University of Texas back in 2007 resulted in a conclusion that proved bland offices which favoured white, grey or beige as their colour scheme often brought about feelings of depression and sadness in women, whereas men were affected in the same way by offices which contained a lot of purple and orange.
It is hard to feel productive in an environment that makes you feel so down, and thus the theory of colour psychology comes into play. Colour dramatically affects how we feel when we are in an environment which is made up of that specific colour, and in an office environment, it’s important to make sure that you’re choosing a colour that is creating the right mood for employees to work in – especially with regards to their productivity.
What Colour Should Be Used?
According to Angela Wright, an expert in colour psychology, “What defines whether a color is stimulating or soothing is not the color, it’s the intensity”.
So while specific colours aren’t necessarily to blame for the low productivity of an office, how vivid or bright a colour is can actually increase or decrease how productive a person is. Generally speaking, the brighter and more vivid a colour is, the more stimulated your brain will be when processing the colours, keeping your brain more awake and therefore more productive.
However, choosing the right colour for your workplace often depends on the mindset of the people working there – do they work better when being in a calmer state of mind, or do they need a boost of colour to help get their creative juices flowing?
Colour psychologists are often heard proclaiming that yellow is a great shade for offices who want to inspire their workers as yellow is said to be the colour of optimism, while being vibrant and triggering innovative thoughts, too.
For those offices who thrive on calm, serene environments, blue is said to be the favoured colour, creating an office which helps keep the mind focused.
There are plenty of other colours which can be used in an office to enhance productivity, but it really does rely on the type of people employed within that office as to which one is best for your company!
Here at Q2Q, we’ve ensured that our office design reflects the needs of our team – which is why we’re so good at what we do! If you’d like to take advantage of our IT expertise, feel free to contact our team today; we’re here to help make your IT department as productive as possible!
