Color is a significant interior element with the power to influence emotions and behaviors in a particular environment. Numerous studies have investigated the impact of a single color on emotion; however, the collective emotional, cognitive, and behavioral effect created by combinations of colors applied to a space has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study involving both a survey as well as eye-tracking technology, we explored shaping the concept of spatial color efficacy by examining different applications of the same color combination in a space to determine whether they may cause different emotional responses, thereby impacting viewers’ perception of luxury and intention to stay. A total of 26 interior design students at a university in Korea participated in the study. An environment simulating a hypothetical retail store was developed using a 3D rendering program, and six variations of spatial applications were created for each high luxury color combination and low luxury color combination to be used as stimuli. While viewing the images, participants were asked to identify which image looked most luxurious and in which space would they most want to stay. Results show the following: (a) the same color combination, if applied differently in a physical environment, can create different emotional responses, thereby affecting perceived luxury and preference to stay; (b) even a low luxury color combination can enhance perceived luxury and preference to stay depending on the spatial application; (c) gaze bias exists when selecting the most luxurious space and stating preference to stay as shown in the high correlation between dwell time and choice; in addition, differences in emotional response across images were also observed in the variations of pupil sizes measured during viewing various applications; (d) dark colors used in large amounts of surface were perceived as more luxurious than light colors when the same color combination was applied; and (e) appropriate contrast among colors was more influential in preference to stay than extreme or minimal contrast. Results expand the understanding of human behavior in relation to spatial color efficacy based on the spatial color combination and potential decision-making process in a retail setting.

A growing aging population across the world signifies the importance of smart homes equipped with appropriate technology for the safety and health of older adults. Well-designed smart homes can increase the desire of older adults’ aging-in-place and bring economic benefits to the country by reducing budgets for care providers. To obtain a structural overview and provide significant insights into the characteristics of smart homes for older adults, this study conducted bibliometric and scientometric analyses. We used the Web of Science Core Collection database, searching for keywords “smart home*”, “home automation”, or “domotics” with terms related to older adults, resulting in a total of 1408 documents. VOSviewer software was used to map and visualize the documents. The results showed that research on smart homes for older adults began appearing from 1997 and increased steadily, peaking from 2015. The main research areas were technical engineering fields, such as computer science and engineering, telecommunications with minimal research in humanities, social sciences, and design, indicating the necessity to expand research toward a human-centered perspective, age-friendly technology, and convergence study.

Older adults spend relatively more time in indoor residential environments than young people. As their visual and cognitive abilities decline, they experience a high risk of accidents in indoor environments; thus, understanding their gaze behavior while considering cognitive capacity is essential in preventing potential accidents and planning for aging-friendly environments. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the use of color in living environments affects the visual attention of older adults. The following two experiments were conducted using eye-tracking technology: Experiment 1: Older adults’ gaze behaviors were measured while viewing four images consisting of nine sets of door–door frames with different color combinations of safety colors, black and white; and Experiment 2: Based on results from Experiment 1, images of simulated living environments were created, and older adults’ gaze behaviors were measured while viewing eight images in which two door colors were applied to verify spatial color visibility. Their cognitive state represented by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was then compared with their gaze behavior. The results show that: (a) participants paid more attention to doors with color combinations including red (red–black and white–red) and remained longer on the red–black combination; (b) older adults looked at red–black doors faster than white doors in the same position; (c) the dwell time on a red–black door was longer than on that of the corresponding position of a white door; and (d) based on participants’ MMSE values, the gaze behaviors of the group with low cognition were less focused and observable than those of the group with normal cognition. The results of this study are significant in that they reveal that indoor color can improve the visibility of elements that can impact safety in the living environments of older adults and enhance their quality of life.