Workspace Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) for Concentration Privacy and Group Relations in the Open-Plan Office Environment

The present study explored the applicability of Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) techniques to workplace design research. Six types of VGA measures in Depthmap encompassing visual connectivity, three types of visual integration, mean depth, and visual entropy were employed for the analysis of individual privacy for task concentration and group relationship behavior in the open-plan office environment. Data comprised 136 workers in 6 open-plan offices filled with low-paneled (1.2-1.5m) cubicle workspaces. For the statistical analysis, Spearman's rho correlations and t-tests were applied for the spatial and behavioral measures. The results showed that workspace VGA measures have a potential to be useful information to account for workers' concentration privacy and, limitedly, also informal relationships with team members. Visual entropy values especially offer reliable information to predict various aspects of office workers' privacy behavior while visual integration can be used to account for the workers' sense of trust in group relations. The study also discussed the limitation of VGA applications to the workplace context.