From motion to meaning: understanding students’ seating preferences in libraries through PIR-enabled machine learning and explainable AI

This study presents a comprehensive, data-driven investigation into students’ seating preferences within academic library environments, aiming to inform user-centered spatial design. Drawing on over 1.3 million ten-minute passive infrared (PIR) sensor observations collected throughout 2023 at the UCL Bartlett Library, we modeled seat-level occupancy using 24 spatial, environmental, and temporal features through advanced machine learning algorithms. Among the models tested, Categorical Boosting (CatBoost) demonstrated the highest predictive performance, achieving a classification accuracy of 72.5%, with interpretability enhanced through SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) analysis. Findings reveal that seating behavior is shaped not by individual factors but by two dominant dimensions: (1) environmental controllability, including access to personal lighting and fresh air, and (2) distraction management, characterized by quiet surroundings, visual privacy, and low-stimulation workspace finishes. In contrast, features commonly presumed to be influential, such as desk width, fixed computer availability, or daylight alone, had minimal impact on seat choice. Despite extensive modeling and optimization, prediction accuracy plateaued at approximately 72%, reflecting the complexity and variability of human behavior in shared learning environments. By integrating long-term behavioral data with explainable machine learning, this study advances the evidence base for academic library design and offers actionable insights. These findings support design strategies that prioritize individual environmental control, as well as acoustic and visual privacy, offering actionable, evidence-based guidance for creating academic library environments that better support student comfort, focus, and engagement.