Design for wellbeing: Exploring the role of workplace design by using XR to promote doctoral researchers’ workplace subjective wellbeing in UK HEIs

Abstract

Despite growing awareness of the mental health challenges faced by doctoral researchers (DRs) in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), little is known about how their workplace design, particularly open-plan offices, impacts their wellbeing. This thesis addresses this gap by focusing specifically on DRs, a group often overlooked in workplace design research. The thesis makes several contributions to theory and practice. First, it sheds light on the unique experiences and needs of DRs in open-plan office environments. Second, it introduces the Design for Workplace Wellbeing (DfWW) framework, linking physical environmental variables with the theory of wellbeing to enhance subjective wellbeing. Third, it demonstrates the innovative use of Extended Reality (XR) to test and evaluate the design intervention, offering a new method to assess spatial design solutions. Finally, it provides evidence-based design recommendations informed by ethnographic and participatory research, guiding improved workplace wellbeing for DRs. The research has three phases. Phase one reviews the literature on subjective wellbeing, workplace design, and XR technologies, leading to the DfWW framework. Phase two explores and investigates workplace wellbeing through experts’ input and ethnographic research with DRs, linking physical environmental variables to the PERMA constructs. Phase three develops and evaluates a workplace design intervention using XR, offering practical recommendations. Results indicate that physical environmental variables, such as noise and light, have impacts on the PERMA constructs. For example, noise negatively affects all PERMA elements, while good lighting improves Positive Emotion and Engagement. These findings underscore the importance of addressing these variables to improve wellbeing in open-plan office environments for DRs.