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User Effort Related to Apartment Design
Author(s) -
Steidl Rose E.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
home economics research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1552-3934
pISSN - 0046-7774
DOI - 10.1177/1077727x8100900404
Subject(s) - respondent , apartment , bedroom , schedule , interior design , quality (philosophy) , wife , applied psychology , residence , architectural engineering , psychology , computer science , operations management , engineering , civil engineering , demographic economics , philosophy , epistemology , political science , law , operating system , economics
To study the quality of the interior physical environment of apartment dwellings for the users and their activities, 115 residents in two‐bedroom apartments were interviewed using a structured schedule. To obtain an evaluation of the human costs of using the environment, respondents rated their effort for tasks in each room. The users' evaluations of specific design features helped interpret ratings. Of 5, 059 ratings of effort relative to effect of room design on 22 tasks, 50 percent were decreased effort, 23 percent little effect on effort, 27 percent in creased effort. Ratings of increased effort averaged 11.87 per respondent. Implicated espe cially were kitchen, entry, and bathroom designs. Negative evaluations of storage, space, floor and wall materials, and sound insulation were associated (χ 2 ) with increased effort. As satisfac tion with apartment decreased, the average number of ratings of increased effort increased. User characteristics, including presence of a child, wife's employment, and the habit of sav ing/collecting things, were also examined. This research provides descriptive information about effects of some design decisions on user effort.