The research uses a linked mechanism design to increase the overall efficiency of the research process and to enhance confidence in the results.

The linked mechanism approach has been used by Dr. David Wyon to assess the impact of thermal and air quality factors on human health and productivity. Basically, the approach begins with a hypothesis or claim and develops a set of hypothesized links between the lighting features and the hypothesized routes to worker performance, health, and organizational productivity. These links are developed in graphic form as a conceptual map.

The linked mechanism approach allows researchers to explain, in detail, how a given change in office lighting is expected to affect workers. Specifying the linkages is important because many of the impacts of high quality lighting are likely to be complicated and to have numerous indirect effects. That is, improved lighting may affect work performance because it enhances mood or energy levels, enables workers to adjust lighting to their own personal preferences, or because it improves the overall look and feel of the space and thus makes it more habitable. The linkage model is powerful because it shows how small and subtle effects on a number of mechanisms have a larger, combined effect on the outcomes.