Stress Reduction of Greenery in Consumer Appliances
Context
During my first role at GE Appliances, I was able lead projects, manage cross-functional communication, execute the work, and advocate for UX. I concluded my time at GE by conducting a “passion project” regarding cognitive restoration, a topic that I had researched on during my time at Texas Tech University, tying my previous research experience to my current role at GE.
I came up with the research objective to find out:
How do users perceive current GE product imagery?
How we can improve GE product imagery to increase perceived restoration among users?
Tools: Qualtrics
Method: Survey, Secondary Research, Literature Review
Timeframe: 1 month
Secondary Research
A 2016 survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people spend approximately 2 hours a day doing chores. Some of the most prevalent chores involved food prep and laundry, household activities that GE provides products for.
If GE Appliance’s products are able to provide a secondary benefit of increasing happiness and well-being (referenced in GE’s motto) it would be benefit the people who are completing these tasks after a long day of work.
One related aspect of happiness and well-being is:
Cognitive Restoration
Restoration is the idea that exposure to certain environments (particularly nature environments) can “restore” a person’s cognitive resources (ART; Kaplan, 1995). Additional benefits include elevating positive feelings of emotion (Hartig, Evans, Jammer, David, & Garling, 2003; Ulrich, 1979) and decreasing physiological and psychological stress (Ulrich, 1979; Ulrich et al., 1991).
There is evidence for the restorative effect of nature as well!
Students rated attentional functioning to be higher when they had natural views from their dormitory window (Tennessen & Cimprich, 1995).
Performance on attentional test also improve after walking through nature environments (Hartig, Evans, Jamner, Davis, & Garling, 2003; Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008).
This phenomena is not specific to actually being in nature physically, as ciewing digital nature images has also been seen to improve directed attention (Berto, 2005; Craig, Klein, Menon, & Rinaldo, 2015).
The team therefore wanted to determine if images of nature were perceived to be more restorative than images of food that were currently being used on GE products.
Research Method
The Short-Perceived Restoration Scale (Short-PRS; Berto, 2005) was used to subjectively measure the components of a restorative scene per the Attention Restoration Theory (ART; Kaplan, 1995)). This is a self-report survey that has been used and validated in previous research.
The GE Appliances Segmentation Questionnaire was given to determine what segmentation of user our participants qualified as.
Stimuli
Photos used in the study are shown below. The study used photos that were currently used on GE products (Row 1 & 2) and photos of nature (Row 3).
The key takeaway from the results were that images of nature led to feelings of perceived cognitive restoration among all segments of users. Additionally, a certain segment of users had a more profound effect of cognitive restoration than others.
Applications from Research:
GE to incorporate imagery that includes elements on nature onto future products since all segmentation of consumers benefit from these elements
Specific segmentations of users would especially benefit from the addition of nature, and less so by food imagery
NEW Indoor Garden Growing Center
Recently, a new product by GE has been announced that incorporates the principles of cognitive restoration that provides a delightful experience for our consumers.