Lighting conditions in home office and occupant's perception: Exploring drivers of satisfaction

This paper depicts lighting home office conditions within different countries and continents, emphasizing the user's satisfaction with the visual environment. The scope of this article is to investigate the drivers of participants' satisfaction with the lighting conditions at the home office. The study was developed by a team of international experts working together on Subtask A: User perspective and requirements, Task 61 IEA (International Energy Agency): Solutions for daylighting and electric lighting. An online survey was launched in December 2020 and closed on March 2021. The survey was implemented in the native languages of six participant countries (Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Poland, and Japan) using Google Forms, and its dissemination was via various social media platforms. Measures of association between variables and predictive tests were run to explore which investigated aspects drove participants' satisfaction with the lighting conditions at the home office. We found some differences in satisfaction due to participants' sex, occupation, and participants' continent of residence. Females were more satisfied with daylight than males. Associations between the perception of seven light descriptors and satisfaction showed differences between East Asians and the rest of the participants, which might be related to the high dependence of the formers on electric lighting even when daylight is available. Design features as southern facades, the distance from the working area to the window, type of internal sun shading were related to daylighting satisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction with the general light level and the electric light was higher for those participants who did not need to switch on the ceiling, floor, or desk lamp when daylight was available. We found that an external view composed of 3 layers and the sky's visibility afforded a higher satisfaction with the window view. Having an independent room for the home office appeared to be related to a higher willingness to continue in the home office. Likewise, higher satisfaction with the overall visual environment and window view appeared to increase the willingness to continue working from home. Bridging the gap amid cultural differences and daylighting and lighting satisfaction is needed, particularly, relational studies between design features –as a response of cultural, climatic, and local practices- and occupants' preferences and acceptability. Thus, our understanding of occupants' responses will be more comprehensive. Engaging further research and measures to improve the visual environment and overall indoor environmental quality in dwellings is now a necessary step

Lighting conditions in home office and occupant's perception: An international study

The global pandemic and physical distancing restrictions are forcing us to rethink how residential buildings are used regarding the visual environment. This paper describes home office lighting conditions within different countries and continents. The aim is to define the current limitations of home offices in providing a resilient visual environment. The work was developed by a team of international experts working together on Subtask A: User perspective and requirements, in International Energy Agency IEA SHC Task 61/EBC Annex 77 “Integrated Solutions for Daylighting and Electric Lighting”. The method included an international online survey in 6 countries in South America, Europe and East Asia containing 37 questions about general data, physical characteristics of the home office and occupant's perception, behaviour and needs regarding the visual environments, and photos taken by the occupants. Descriptive statistics, inspection of the photos, and qualitative analysis from the open-ended question were performed. In total, 694 responses and 453 photos were analysed, making it possible to identify the occupants’ perceptions about the lighting and visual environment in the home offices both for professionals and students. The results indicate cultural differences in styles of residential buildings and interiors, in the custom of using lighting, and between continents and occupational categories. Possible improvements are suggested

‘Personas for lighting’. Three methods to develop personas for the indoor lighting environment

The objective of this research is to describe and compare three different methods of generating ‘persona for lighting’ to envision users’ behaviour within the lighting environment. ‘Personas’ are used to represent typical users, highlighting their needs, perspectives, and expectations to aid user-centric design approaches. The researchers looked for the most useful method of shaping ‘personas for lighting’ to learn about users’ satisfaction with the various lighting conditions to identify their needs. Method one of lighting persona development, was based on interviews with 87 users of five buildings of four different types: an office, a primary school, two university buildings, and a factory. The lighting conditions were observed and measured in all the buildings. As a result, 22 personas for lighting were created. In method two personas were generated based on pre-interviews, workshops on lighting and post-interviews with ten users along with the onsite lighting measurements. Later, due to the Covid- 19 pandemic’s lockdowns, an online survey on the visual lighting environment in home offices was car- ried out among 694 students and professionals from seven countries to create two more personas for lighting (method three). All 26 ‘personas for lighting’ were generated in relation to observed lighting conditions, based on the satisfaction, preferences and needs of the users working within variously lit indoor environments. All the tested methods can be used for nearly any type of building and room, but the resulting personas are different due to the specific limitations of the methods. The created personas may help to identify future users’ lighting preferences, needs and requirements and assist designers. However, to fully understand their impact on the lighting research practice they should be tested in real projects