Anyone with a laptop or PC with webcam, can participate; on a Mac, link to it from Google Chrome or Firefox (and it’s best to do so in a quiet space with minimal distraction.) Click below:
This study, sponsored by theHapi.org, looks at how humans really look at buildings, using state-of-the-art eye-tracking and facial-expression-analysis software from iMotions.com, a global purveyor of biometric tools for human behavioral research. Once on site, the study directs you to eye-tracking calibration slides – where you simply focus on a shape as it moves across the screen. Images of buildings interiors and exteriors follow. The study takes about 5 minutes to complete, and ends with quick post-calibration slides that track eye moments – don’t click out beforehand!
theHapi.org hopes to share results shortly. Reach out if you have any questions or ideas for future studies; email: contact@theHapi.org
Feel free to share this post + links; the more participants, the better!
On a recent trip to London, I came across a corner shop offering a tempting deal: £2 for any 10 postcards of the city!
So I quickly picked out ten. But, as I stood at the register, I realized that my selection was not random. I paused, wondering why none of the postcards showed close-ups of The Shard – one of London’s newer skyscrapers. I realized these souvenirs were quietly, and successfully, appealing to my biology. Without knowing it, I had responded to deep-rooted preferences shaped by our evolution. Here’s what I noticed:
1.Traditional Architecture
At the shop I found endless postcards of the famous clock tower, Big Ben (c. 1859) but none focused on the infamous all-glass Shard (c. 2012).
Biometric studies today show that most modern buildings do not engage us like traditional ones. One reason for this is because traditional architecture uses lots of symmetry, hierarchy, and fine detail that appeal to the eye. Just as nature is rich in detail, humans unknowingly replicated this non-conscious preference in traditional buildings worldwide, – up until the modern movement, where architecture becomes minimalist and glass-heavy, (like The Shard).
On the left, is a photo I took of The Shard; no surprise, I found no postcards focused on this building; evidently people prefer to look at and purchase a postcard of Big Ben.
2. Use of Red
Another common feature of the postcards was the repeated use of red. Red is one of the most biologically powerful colors humans perceive. In primitive times it was crucial for our brains to quickly recognize red, as it could signal danger – like a lion’s mouth!
Today red continues to attract our attention and is used universally for stop signs, emergency signals, breaking news banners, and ads everywhere.
3. People and Faces
Another important evolutionary trait we share with early humans is finding and always looking for other people. Faces are among the fastest things that our brain can process and recognize, within fractions of a second.
No surprise, then, faces and people are everywhere in logos, billboards and the London postcards.
As an architecture student, I wondered how architects might use these techniques to get people to pay more attention to buildings so that we might mindfully experience the urban environment.
Here’s the ten postcards, I picked up without realizing it, take a look:
Click on image to enlarge
And, note that the only postcard featuring The Shard also shows London Bridge, another iconic traditional London landmark, in front of it, during a sunset where the River Thames is almost red!
Further London postcard analysis is here:
Pietra Leao is a BArch student at the Boston Architectural College (BAC)
Interested in understanding our behavior in the built environment? If you missed the talk, no worries; it’s also available online here:
The topic is Thigmotaxis, discussing how humans are natural ‘Wall-Huggers’ – hardwired to seek out edge-conditions for safety + orientation without conscious awareness or control!
Designers who get this improve design outcomes everywhere; those who don’t – disappoint us all!
This course is AIA certified for 0.5 Learning Units (HSW LUs):
It reveals how our biology impacts our design experience more than most realize, and how recognizing that will help us build healthy and happier places for us all!
Biometric tools create heatmaps which glow brightest where people look most, when taking in any scene – fading to black in areas ignored, revealing how detail, organized complexity draw the eye, and blankness, repetitive parallel lines do not.
Interested in learning more? Check out theHapi.org’s online courses here:
Tufts University’s Urban Attitudes Lab is currently analyzing a short online eye-tracking study comparing visual responses to pocket forests in built environments; results should be out soon.
Building Study #11 – we hope to have results out soon!
These studies, sponsored by theHapi.org, look at how humans really look at buildings, using state-of-the-art eye-tracking and facial-expression-analysis software from iMotions.com, a global purveyor of biometric tools for human behavioral research. Once on site, each study directs you to eye-tracking calibration slides – where you simply focus on a shape as it moves across the screen – before the study begins; each one takes about 4 minutes to complete.
Just in time for the Holidays, we’re again offering a package deal on the HAPI Certification course, all 7-classes bundled for $99!
What is it? Seven half-hour presentations bridging the arts + sciences, revealing how biology and psychology shape our experience of the built environment – inside + out, far more than most realize. All online.
AIA-certified for 3.5 Learning Units (LUs)*, this is the perfect gift for architects, planners, and designers of all stripes, both students and professionals, who are keen to better understand the science behind human design experience – and apply it.
They’ll become familiar with new tools to assess design – including eye tracking, which follows our conscious and non-conscious eye movements, capturing how we take in any scene; (click on image below).
More HAPI Certification Course information is here. Have additional ?s, email: contact(at)theHapi.org
* combined theHAPI courses provide 3 LU|HSWs credits plus 0.5 LU credit
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theHapi.org is a nonprofit, 501c3, whose mission is to understand the human experience of the built environment and improve its design through education + research.
This session, moderated by Michael Mehaffy, includes brief talks by contributing authors of 15 of the book’s 31 Chapters, see list below, and a Welcome by its co-editors, Alexandros Lavdas + Ann Sussman.
Participants heard about our transformative time, how new understandings in the life sciences are game-changing for architecture and urban design, for understanding what people need to see and be in to be at their best.
Here’s the draft list of remarkable speakers, who briefly talked about their Handbook chapters:
Edited by Board Members of theHapi.org, the Handbook reflects our game-changing times in the 21st-century, where new understandings in the life sciences, prove transformative for design fields, including architecture, planning and interior design, helping us appreciate what people need to see and be in to be at their best!
Compiling 31 Chapters by 51 authors on four continents, the Handbook provides a new foundation for architects, academics and the public at large to understand the human experience of place, revealing how our experience begins subliminally and reflects our evolution.
With Introductions by Susan Magsamen of the International Arts + Mind Lab and Micheal Mehaffy, of the Sustasis Foundation, the Handbook presents six sections, with chapters delving into human perception, our need for social connection, discussions of how color, shape and form impact our behavior, as well as how biometric tools, including eye-tracking and AI tools, provide a new lens to ‘see’ both architecture and ourselves.
The e-book version of the Handbook, with most affordable subscriptions, (starting at $38), is here:
Feel free to share the flyer. For the freePDFof the Handbook’s first 80-pages, including the Table of Contents, Introduction and first three Chapters, click on the PREVIEW BOOK button in the link below:
Anyone with a laptop or PC with webcam, can participate; on a Mac, link to them from Google Chrome or Firefox (and it’s best to do so in a quiet space with minimal distraction.)
These studies, sponsored by theHapi.org, look at how humans really look at buildings, using state-of-the-art eye-tracking and facial-expression-analysis software from iMotions.com, a global purveyor of biometric tools for human behavioral research. Once on site, each study directs you to eye-tracking calibration slides – where you simply focus on a shape as it moves across the screen – before the study begins; each one takes about 4 minutes to complete.
theHapi.org hopes to share results shortly. Reach out if you have any questions or ideas for future studies; email us at, contact@theHapi.org
The Genetics of Design 