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- All Subjects: Productivity
- Creators: Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs
- Creators: Cooke, Nancy
Description
Workplace productivity is a result of many factors, and among them is the setup of the office and its resultant noise level. The conversations and interruptions that come along with converting an office to an open plan can foster innovation and creativity, or they can be distracting and harm the performance of employees. Through simulation, the impact of different types of office noise was studied along with other changing conditions such as number of people in the office. When productivity per person, defined in terms of mood and focus, was measured, it was found that the effect of noise was positive in some scenarios and negative in others. In simulations where employees were performing very similar tasks, noise (and its correlates, such as number of employees), was beneficial. On the other hand, when employees were engaged in a variety of different types of tasks, noise had a negative overall effect. This indicates that workplaces that group their employees by common job functions may be more productive than workplaces where the problems and products that employees are working on are varied throughout the workspace.
ContributorsHall, Mikaela Starrantino (Author) / Pavlic, Theodore P. (Thesis director) / Cooke, Nancy (Committee member) / Industrial, Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This honors thesis utilizes smart home components and concepts from Dr. Burleson's Game as Life, Life as Game (GaLLaG) systems. The thesis focuses on an automated lifestyle, where individuals utilize technology, such as door sensors, appliance and lamp modules, and system notifications, to assist in daily activities. The findings from our efforts to date indicate that after weeks of observations, there is no evidence that automated lifestyles create more productive and healthy lifestyles and lead to overall satisfaction in life; however, there are certain design principles that would assist future home automation applications.
ContributorsRosales, Justin Bart (Author) / Burleson, Winslow (Thesis director) / Walker, Erin (Committee member) / Hekler, Eric (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-05