Navigating large shopping centers requires significant cognitive effort due to the constant processing of spatial information and route planning. In such environments, users are continuously exposed to competing visual stimuli, intersecting circulation paths, ambiguous spatial hierarchies, and diverse functional zones, all of which contribute to elevated cognitive load and increased risk of disorientation. This complexity is amplified in contemporary commercial architecture, where aesthetic priorities, multifunctional programs, and dynamic spatial sequences often overshadow human cognitive limitations. Navigating complex environments effectively relies on both individual spatial skills and the clarity of environmental cues provided by the architecture.
Within this context, environmental design elements play a critical role in supporting or hindering wayfinding performance. Among these elements, lighting quality—particularly as a core component of human-centered architectural design—has a decisive influence on spatial perception, attentional allocation, emotional response, and behavioral efficiency. Lighting does not merely serve a functional purpose of illumination; rather, it actively shapes users’ cognitive mapping processes and decision-making behavior in complex architectural settings. By manipulating luminance gradients, color temperature, and contrast, designers can subtly direct attention, reveal spatial hierarchies, and reinforce orientation cues. This interplay between lighting and cognition has long been recognized in environmental psychology, yet remains underexplored in architectural research focused on real-world navigation.
Previous research has extensively examined various lighting parameters, including illuminance levels, directionality, contrast, glare control, and uniformity, and their effects on visual comfort and spatial legibility. Despite increasing interest in the non-visual and cognitive effects of light, the impact of correlated color temperature (CCT) on wayfinding in complex commercial environments remains poorly understood. Existing studies often address CCT effects in descriptive or isolated laboratory settings, focusing primarily on mood, preference, or general visual comfort, rather than on measurable behavioral outcomes related to navigation. Moreover, empirical investigations that integrate user-based performance metrics with immersive architectural simulations are still limited. Consequently, the optimal range of light color temperature for enhancing spatial cognition, reducing cognitive load, and improving navigation efficiency in shopping centers hasn’t yet been clearly defined.
This research addresses this gap by systematically evaluating the impact of six different correlated color temperature conditions on users’ wayfinding performance within a simulated shopping center environment. The study employs a human-centered design approach that leverages the capabilities of interactive virtual reality (VR) with eye-tracking technology to capture both behavioral and perceptual responses. By embedding lighting scenarios directly into a realistic architectural model and observing users’ real-time navigation behavior, the research moves beyond subjective assessments and provides objective, data-driven insights into how CCT influences spatial decision-making.
The study is applied in nature and employs an experimental design. A total of 32 participants, aged between 18 and 57 years, took part in the experiment. Participants with varied shopping center experience and spatial abilities navigated a complex virtual shopping center with multiple levels, corridors, landmarks, and routes, allowing for a representative assessment of user responses. The virtual environment was developed using a high-fidelity architectural model to ensure ecological validity, while maintaining full experimental control over lighting conditions.
Six lighting scenarios were implemented, each defined by a distinct correlated color temperature ranging from warm to cool light spectra. Participants completed a series of predefined navigation tasks under each lighting condition and located specific destinations within the virtual shopping center. During navigation, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative performance measures included decision-making time at choice points, the number of wayfinding errors, total task completion time, eye fixation duration, fixation frequency on navigational cues, and overall eye movement patterns. These metrics provided detailed insights into cognitive load, attentional focus, and navigation efficiency. In addition, qualitative data were gathered through post-task questionnaires, capturing participants’ subjective perceptions of spatial clarity, visual comfort, perceived difficulty, and overall environmental legibility under each lighting condition.
One-way ANOVA was used to analyze differences in wayfinding performance across the six CCT conditions. Pearson correlations explored relationships between eye-tracking metrics and behavioral performance. This mixed-methods approach provided a comprehensive understanding of how lighting color temperature affects navigation behavior and cognitive processes.
The results demonstrate that lighting with a correlated color temperature of approximately 4000 Kelvin significantly enhances wayfinding performance compared to both warmer (3000 K) and cooler (5000 K) lighting conditions (p < 0.05). Under the 4000 K condition, participants exhibited shorter decision-making times at critical choice points, made fewer navigation errors, and demonstrated more focused visual attention toward key spatial cues such as directional signage, landmarks, and circulation axes. Eye-tracking data revealed longer fixation durations and more stable gaze patterns on navigational elements, suggesting improved spatial comprehension and reduced cognitive load. These findings indicate that Neutral-white lighting enhances spatial information processing, perceptual clarity, and cognitive performance.
In contrast, cooler lighting conditions at 5000 K were associated with diminished wayfinding efficiency. Participants navigating under this lighting condition showed increased decision-making times, higher error rates, and more dispersed eye movement patterns. The eye-tracking data suggest that cooler light may increase visual overstimulation and cognitive strain, which leads to reduced attentional focus and less effective use of spatial cues. Participants also reported higher perceived difficulty and lower levels of visual comfort in the qualitative questionnaires, which reinforces the quantitative findings. Warmer lighting at 3000 K, while often perceived as emotionally pleasant, did not support optimal navigation performance, as it appeared to reduce contrast and spatial clarity in key decision-making areas.
These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that lighting design should be considered a strategic tool for shaping spatial cognition and behavior, rather than a purely aesthetic or technical consideration. By demonstrating the measurable effects of correlated color temperature on wayfinding performance, this study highlights the importance of aligning lighting strategies with human cognitive capabilities and behavioral needs. It provides empirical evidence for performance-based lighting design, in which visual parameters are optimized to enhance both functional and psychological aspects of environmental experience.
The use of virtual reality and eye-tracking technology proved particularly effective in capturing nuanced user responses. It offers a powerful methodological framework for future research in architectural design evaluation. These tools facilitate controlled manipulation of environmental variables while maintaining ecological realism, bridging the gap between laboratory studies and real-world contexts. From a practical perspective, the results suggest that adopting a CCT around 4000 K in circulation paths and decision-intensive areas of shopping centers—such as intersections, atriums, and vertical circulation zones—may significantly enhance navigational clarity and user experience. This insight can guide architectural lighting design toward a more evidence-based, human-centered paradigm.
This study introduces a performance-based lighting model that incorporates color temperature to improve human wayfinding. This model helps architects, lighting designers, and urban planners enhance spatial legibility and behavioral efficiency in commercial spaces by considering the psychological and cognitive effects of lighting, thus advancing environmental perception and experiential design.
In conclusion, the research demonstrates that evaluating lighting conditions within immersive virtual architectural environments provides a robust and user-centered approach to understanding the behavioral implications of design decisions. By linking correlated color temperature to objective measures of wayfinding performance and cognitive load, the study advances both theoretical knowledge and practical application in the fields of architectural lighting design, environmental psychology, and human-centered design. Future research may expand on these findings by exploring interactions between CCT and other environmental variables, such as luminance contrast, material reflectance, and spatial configuration, as well as by testing additional user groups and real-world settings. The integration of such interdisciplinary approaches promises to enrich our understanding of how built environments can be designed to support intuitive navigation, cognitive efficiency, and positive user experience in complex spatial systems.