Visual display unit workstation lighting

Psychological Processes Influencing Lighting Quality

“…VDT operators preferred having a spot light to highlight a painting on the wall beyond the VDT screen, over the same wall with uniform illumination. 35 Yorks and Ginthner found that visitors to a mock office preferred to have a bright wall in front of the desk, and tended to move farther into the room towards the brighter wall (although this finding is questionable, given the small sample size and unusual data analysis). 102 Tregenza et al found that preferred wall:desk illuminance ratios were different for the front, rear, left and right walls.…”

“…106 Similarly, typing performance did not differ for VDT operators under direct or direct + indirect lighting. 35 Katzev's performance results were mixed, as were the preference results discussed above. 110 Reading comprehension was best in the office with the direct/indirect luminaires, but typing performance was worst in that office; there were no other statistically significant effects.…”

“…34 Nor did varying task document brightness for participants typing text into a VDT influence typing performance. 35 Slater, Perry, and Carter varied the illuminance ratio across an open office with two desks between 0.29 (very nonuniform) and 0.98 (very uniform), but found no effect on a paper-based clerical coding task. 36 One study has found an effect in which nonuniform desktop illumination improved performance.…”

“…Both Yearout and Konz 35 and Harvey et al 106 found that indirect systems were preferred over parabolic louvered systems for VDT work. Mean ratings on seven semantic differential ratings of the lighting system consistently favored lensed-indirect over parabolic louvered lighting, as did ratings of overall satisfaction with lighting.…”

Exercised Control, Lighting Choices, and Energy Use: An Office Simulation Experiment

“…Lighting conditions were expected to show wide individual differences, as in the literature (Halonen & Lehtovaara, 1995;Tregenza, Romaya, Dawe, Heap, & Tuck, 1974). Both indirect and direct lighting sources were included in the space, as both have been found to be acceptable (Ellis, 1986;Katzev, 1992;Yearout & Konz, 1989). The observation that individuals might prefer light levels higher than recommended practice (Begemann, Aarts, & Tenner, 1994;Leslie & Hartleb, 1990) is associated with concern that individual control might lead to excessive energy use for lighting; consequently, both the chosen luminous conditions and their associated energy consumption were included as dependent measures.…”