Purpose This paper highlights the importance of user satisfaction in office renovation. A user-focussed renovation approach can enhance user satisfaction in offices and their functional quality while meeting energy performance goals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ needs and the physical and psychological factors affecting user satisfaction, as input to office renovation projects. Design/methodology/approach The selected articles are collected from Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Searching was limited to the main key terms of office, work environment, and user satisfaction and comfort. The important factors were searched through empirical-based international literature mainly. Based hereupon, a guide will be developed for the analysis and evaluation of user satisfaction in office renovations. Findings From a comprehensive overview, the findings present ten main factors to increase user satisfaction in office renovation. These are associated with physical and psychological satisfaction and comfort. In addition, the influential factors were categorised into three levels based on needs theories to organise the hierarchy of priorities. Practical implications This research adds to the body of knowledge about which factors are important for user satisfaction, based on what previous research has found in that field. This is important to improve the sustainability in use. Originality/value User satisfaction is often studied through separate aspects: health and indoor climate vs functionality and productivity. This paper examines overall user satisfaction of workplaces by integrating the perspectives of physical and psychological conditions, and by providing insight into the priority of satisfaction factors.
Purpose Employees’ satisfaction and productivity is one of the main interests of employers. Psychological comfort can cause dissatisfaction with their work. Thus, it is important to understand what factors contribute to employees’ satisfaction in workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to identify the weight of contribution of each design parameter on increasing psychological satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The study included 579 employees in five offices in The Netherlands through an online survey. The typologies of offices vary in terms of office layouts, orientations and façade. Additionally, a parameter of desk location was included as this factor may be associated with user satisfaction. Kruskal–Wallis H test, categorical regression, and logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the impact of these design parameters on psychological user satisfaction. Findings The results revealed the impact of design parameters on the psychological satisfaction. The parameters of office layouts and desk locations were the significant predictor factors for the probability of satisfaction variables (e.g. privacy, concentration, communication, social contact and territoriality). The parameters for optimal satisfaction were found in cellular office, north-west oriented workstation and 4 m away from a window. Originality/value Psychological comfort is an inevitable aspect in user satisfaction studies. This paper, therefore, measures and predicts the relationship between design factors and employees’ satisfaction through case studies in The Netherlands. The findings help designers, architects, planners and facility managers to develop user-focussed office design principles supporting employees’ work performance.
Earthworms (Oligochaeta) are globally distributed soil-dwelling invertebrates that alter soil properties through feeding, casting, and burrowing behaviors. Soil physicochemical modification, which may directly influence the availability and dynamics of organic and inorganic nutrients in the soil, such as carbon and nitrogen, includes soil texture, porosity, and pH. Temperate forests produce year-round plant litter, the primary food source for earthworms, and litter processed by earthworms significantly contributes to soil organic material storage. In recent decades, studies on temperate forest ecosystems have attempted to elucidate and quantify the earthworm impact on soil organic material dynamics, mainly targeting carbon and nitrogen, using isotope analysis methods. This paper summarizes studies on the following topics: (1) effect of earthworm modification on soil property to understand these alterations’ interaction with carbon and nitrogen dynamics, and (2) isotope tracing method, used to elucidate the earthworm effect on carbon and nitrogen transformation and movements in temperate forests. The particular emphasis on the isotope method is based on its capability of time-adjusted quantification of organic materials in the ecosystem compartments. Also, isotopic labeling in biomass has a broad range of applications, such as tracing assimilated food sources, identifying trophic interactions in soil food webs, and addressing material dynamics in complex linkages between earthworms and their environment. In addition, we provide perspectives on other methodologies, such as chronology and population ecology, as feasible options to further assist the isotope tracing of earthworms’ impact on soil nutrient dynamics.
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