Researchers found that moderate level of background noise (around 70dB, what you can expect in an average coffee shop), help enhance creative thinking.

Abstract:

This paper examines how ambient noise, an important environmental variable, can affect creativity. Results from five experiments demonstrate that a moderate (70 dB) versus low (50 dB) level of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks and increases the buying likelihood of innovative products. A high level of noise (85 dB), on the other hand, hurts creativity. Process measures reveal that a moderate (vs. low) level of noise increases processing difficulty, inducing a higher construal level and thus promoting abstract processing, which subsequently leads to higher creativity. A high level of noise, however, reduces the extent of information processing and thus impairs creativity.

Link to the paper:

http://ift.tt/12hnsKL

Great design resource

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) Submitted September 16, 2017 at 11:56AM by randomusefulbits http://ift.tt/2h9iM6v