Light is one of the most important elements in any work place. Without proper light, your employees will not work efficiently, will complain of headaches and, in the long terms, will damage their eyes. When you are planning an office layout, lighting is one of the key elements you should consider.

Here are the three main characteristics of good office lighting:

1. Visual Performance

Employees work best if the illumination is at an adequate level and does not have a glare. Adequate illumination replicates natural light: it allows perfect vision of written documents and electronic documents on the computer screen, but does not bounce back to affect the eyes.

2. Visual Environment

This characteristic consists of several elements: shadiness, direction of light and light color. Shadiness is connected with direction of light. If the light is placed exactly above the person, the paperwork they work on will be covered by their shadow. For a right handed person, for instance, the ideal direction of light is from above left side.  This is especially important for those with a big executive office desk with more workspace.

As for light color, a yellow shade is more comfortable for the eye than white light.

3. Visual Comfort

Visual comfort is given by light intensity and color rendering. The lighting system should allow your employees to perceive each color accurately, without distortions.