Research
Notes:
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## Section-by-section instructions
**1. Opening.** Two short paragraphs. Say what the page is and who it is for. Do not sell here. A designer specifying work for a children's hospital arrives at this page to check whether you are serious, and the opening either answers that or it does not.
**2. The theoretical foundation.** Attention Restoration Theory and biophilia, one block each. Explain each in plain language, then name the researchers. This is the section closest to what you already teach, so it will write fastest.
**3. What the research shows.** The evidence itself. Use the repeating study block in the markup, one per finding. Each carries a claim, a short plain-language summary, and a source line. Copy the block as many times as you need.
**4. Photographic nature specifically.** Separate section, and the most important one on the page. Your entire positioning rests on the claim that a photograph does some of what a landscape does. That claim is contested and the effects are smaller. Treating it as its own section rather than folding it into section 3 is what an honest scientist does, and a specifier will notice.
**5. My own work.** Publications, current funded research, teaching. Keep it factual and dated. Two things to hold to: you are not yet Dr. Austin, so nothing on this page should imply the doctorate is finished. And the 2025 NAU collaboration should be described as what it is, not as a finding it has not produced yet.
**6. What the research does not say.** Limitations. Effect sizes are modest, most studies are short-term, photographic nature is not equivalent to being outdoors, and individual response varies. Stating this costs you nothing with a general buyer and buys you everything with an institutional one. A page that only lists supporting evidence reads as marketing. A page that names its own limits reads as scholarship.
**7. References.** Author, year, title, journal. No abstracts, no long quotations.
**8. Closing.** One short paragraph and a route to contact. Institutional inquiries come from this page more than any other.
The evidence this work is built on
OPENING PARAGRAPH ONE. What this page is. Two or three sentences.
OPENING PARAGRAPH TWO. Who it is for and what they will find. Two or three sentences.
The theoretical foundation
Attention Restoration Theory
EXPLAIN ART IN PLAIN LANGUAGE. Directed attention fatigue, soft fascination, the four properties of a restorative environment. Name Kaplan and Kaplan. Two or three paragraphs.
Biophilia
EXPLAIN BIOPHILIA. The proposed affiliation with living systems, and what it predicts about built environments. Name Wilson, and Ulrich for the stress recovery work. Two or three paragraphs.
What the research shows
ONE SHORT INTRODUCTORY LINE, then the findings below.
FINDING HEADLINE. One sentence, stated plainly.
Two or three sentences describing the study and what it found, in your own words. What was measured, in whom, and what changed.
Author, Year. Journal.
FINDING HEADLINE. One sentence, stated plainly.
Two or three sentences describing the study and what it found, in your own words. What was measured, in whom, and what changed.
Author, Year. Journal.
FINDING HEADLINE. One sentence, stated plainly.
Two or three sentences describing the study and what it found, in your own words. What was measured, in whom, and what changed.
Author, Year. Journal.
Photographic nature
THE CENTRAL QUESTION. Does an image of a landscape do what a landscape does, and how much of it. State honestly that the effects are smaller than direct exposure and that the literature is mixed. Then give the evidence that supports the practice. Three or four paragraphs.
USE THE SAME FINDING BLOCKS ABOVE for individual studies on images, windows, and simulated nature.
My own work
CURRENT RESEARCH. The 2025 NAU collaboration on ecopsychology and mental health. What it is studying, not what it has concluded.
TEACHING. What you teach and where, and how it connects. Two or three sentences.
Publications
LIST PUBLICATIONS. Author, year, title, journal. One per line.
From research to photograph
THE BRIDGE. How the theory shapes what you photograph and how you print it. Depth, horizon, complexity without clutter, the absence of demand. This is the section that turns a literature review into your practice. Three or four paragraphs.
What the research does not say
LIMITATIONS. Effect sizes are modest. Most studies are short-term. Photographic nature is not equivalent to being outdoors. Individual response varies. A photograph is not a treatment and does not replace care. Two or three paragraphs, written as plainly as the rest.
References
FULL REFERENCE LIST. Author, year, title, journal. One per line.
CLOSING PARAGRAPH. One short paragraph inviting questions, particularly from institutions.
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