Ceiling Height Alters How You Think

From Live Science.com comes a story that should be of interest to anyone running (or developing) an E-Text production facility or computer labs of any sort.

A recent study at the University of Minnesota suggests that ceiling height affects problem-solving skills and behavior by priming concepts that encourage certain kinds of brain
processing.

Typically such back room production is quite literally assigned to a back room (should you be lucky enough to have such luxurious extra space) and typically not enough thought is given to ergonomics and worker comfort.

A related story on the Intelligent Workplace provides a look at research (experiments?) being conducted at Carnegie Mellon University Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics. Housed (quite literally as it is the 'house') at the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace, with the mission "to research and demonstrate advanced building systems and their integration for total building performance." This may be a bit much for a simple AT or E-Text production lab, but there is always something to be learned. For example, within the IW all workers are within a certain distance of natural light and ventilation. In my E-Text lab one of the things my staff appreciates is windows that actually open and the fact that on a sunny day there is no need for the overhead fluorescents.