Research & Strategy
Over the past two years, hundreds of thousands of people unknowingly participated in a massive social experiement. This page presents a synthesis of research and actionable insights that can be used to create better workspaces for both employees and employers.
In 2010, baby boomers made up more than 50% of the U.S. workforce.
By 2025, 75% of U.S. workers will be millennials.
Many employers have begun to acknowledge employee wellbeing as a good business strategy, given the link between improved health and reduced absenteeism/increased productivity. Our workspaces will continue to evolve along with changes in business priorities and cultural norms.
What might these changes look like?
Background
The scope of this project revolves around one simple question: Where do people go when they really need to get something done? It turns out, people aren’t saying what companies think they would say.
Companies are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars creating spaces for people to come together and do work, so why are so few people choosing the office as their preferred place to do work?
Office design trends represent both a continuation of what worked in the past, as well as a reaction to what hasn’t. Modern office spaces are evolving along with changes in business priorities and cultural norms. NOOK provides a third alternative for remote/travel workers, distributed teams and more.
Open office plans were intended to boost collaboration, but they ended up having the opposite effect. In a survey of more than 2,000 office workers across the US, UK, and Australia, 69% said that their concentration levels, productivity, and creativity were negativity impacted by noisy distractions, and 44% said their companies did nothing to address the noise.
Studies have also found that multitasking reduces productivity by 40%. There is power in omission for consumers who are overwhelmed by the constant connectivity of the information age. How can we use technology in ways that allow us to distance ourselves from technology?
We aren’t here to change your offices. We’re here to rethink and reimagine outdated office conventions.
The average workday is 8 hours, but when’s the last time you actually had 8 hours to work on, well, your work? How about half of that? When's the last time you even had, say, 2 hours of uninterrupted time to really focus on solving a problem? Group collaboration is key, but we would benefit from a better balance between “team time” and “think time”.
If you’ve ever experienced your own flow state, you know how empowering it is, but it’s not easy to achieve. It takes about 20 minutes of focus to enter a flow state, and each distraction resets that timer.
Our workplaces are filled with involuntary distractions that break up the workday into a series of work moments. But people need long stretches of time to get thoughtful work done, especially creative careers and the thinkers of the world – the designers, writers, engineers, programmers, etc.
Over the past year, we have discovered strengths and weaknesses of the work from home model, and a disparity between home and office workspaces has given rise to an emerging hybrid work model.
As we return to traditional office settings, we are finding that they are not optimally set up for remote participation, but many homes lack conducive environmental factors to accommodate focused work.
Opinions on remote work may vary, but one thing is certain: a new hybrid work model is emerging. No doubt, the office will evolve along with changes in business priorities and cultural norms. What might these changes look like?
Understanding Workplace Conventions
Emerging Trends and Predictions
Office design trends represent both a continuation of what has worked in the past, as well as a reaction to what hasn’t.
Creative Collaboration
Companies will continue to foster innovation through collaborative workspaces that stimulate and promote creativity while increasing employee efficacy by balancing think time and team time.
Tech Integration
Workspaces will continue to adapt to changing needs spurred by technological advances. Emerging technology will be used in ways that allow us to distance ourselves from technology.
Design for Wellness
Many employers have begun to acknowledge employee wellbeing as a good business strategy, given the link between improved health and reduced absenteeism/increased productivity.
Flexible Work Areas
On-the-go workers are constantly looking for ways to optimize their time. Companies will rely on new technology to improve mobility for its employees, providing the ability to work from different locations both in the office and remotely.
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the modern workplace.
At NOOK, we will not be bystanders in this 21st century renaissance. We are a catalyst.
Primary Research
Objective: develop a deeper understanding of potential client’s workplace routines in order to identify opportunities for innovation and potential solutions.
Observation
Create observation checklist
Visit public spaces where people go to do work
Observe and ask questions (if possible)
Pay attention to behaviors, activities, habits, distractions, actions, motivations, attitudes, preferences, ethnography
Interviews (qualitative)
Create list of potential interviewees
Create list of open-ended questions
Keep in mind: the goal is to understand subjective perspectives such as opinions, attitudes, feelings, etc.
Surveys (quantitative)
Create list of organizations to send survey
Create list of close-ended questions
Reference survey construction guide: laddering questions, conjoint analysis, decision tree model, ZMET (Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique)
I set out to try to better understand users’ behaviors, needs, and attitudes by using a variety of observation and feedback collection methods. This contextual research helped me understand how potential clients live their lives so that I could respond to their needs with informed design solutions. This kind of ethnographic research is an essential step in validating and invalidating assumptions and proposing potential design solutions.
What People Are Saying
Brainstorming and Ideation
Mind Mapping
The central theme of this mind map was “think tank”. CEOs such as Bill Gates have attributed much of their company’s success to periodic “think weeks” and so this part of the ideation phase explored ways to replicate the associated benefits by micro-dosing these purpose driven retreats. Many employers have begun to acknowledge employee wellbeing as a good business strategy, given the link between improved health and reduced absenteeism/increased productivity, so how can we make these benefits accessible to more people?
Benchmarking
A handful of companies have brought to market office phone booths and private workspace pods, but how long would you feel comfortable working inside one of these? I don’t know about you, but these are one of the last places I would want to go if I needed to get any real work done. They are good for making phone calls and some of the companies have bigger pods that are intended for short meetings with 2-4 people, but all of them are designed to be occupied for short periods of time, and their target audience is companies. All of them are intended to be purchased by a company and installed inside offices and none of them are suitable for extended periods of work.
Target Audience
Our clients are employees and entrepreneurs who travel for leisure, who wish to loosen the tether that keeps them close to corporate headquarters. They are members of distributed teams stationed around the world, who depend on virtual collaboration tools and cloud environments. They are the early adopters, who propel new product and technology trends. Our clients are cornerstones of every company.
NOOK fosters an innovative work environment and a better balance between the collaborative team time needed for cross pollination of ideas and perspectives, and the personal think time required to focus on deep thinking.
NOOK isn’t meant for some people to use all of the time. It’s meant for all people to use some of the time.
