Office Hack #44 — Shutterstock’s Wayfinder Hack
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On their way up to the observation deck of New York’s iconic Empire State Building, tourists might not realize the floors they whiz past house the offices of many big companies…in many big offices.
One of those companies is Shutterstock, a stock photography provider.
Listen to this story on our Office Hacks podcast.
Shutterstock moved here a few years ago. Photography figures prominently into the design.
The images all come from Shutterstock users.
The space also has all of the bells and whistles of a successful start up.
Cozy alcoves…
A games room...
Free food!
They even have a jam space for employees who can’t rock out at home.
But here’s the thing at Shutterstock: the open concept work areas span 104,000 square feet across three floors. So it can be difficult, especially for new employees, to figure out where meeting rooms are, or where other colleagues sit, and how to get there.
Enter: Shutterstock’s Wayfinder, created during a hackathon.
Type in your starting point, and your destination…
..et voila!
Like Google Maps, a path emerges. And if you are traveling far (some employees have walked as far as 10 miles in a single day inside this office) the directions are portable.
How to hack it
Want your own custom interactive office map? Shutterstock won’t disclose their exact coding methods but they would say that developers were provided with a map of the office space; a map based on the office’s architectural drawings. Using that, developers were able to overlay the Wayfinder code onto it.
“The borders (walls), seats and conference rooms all had to be individually marked onto the map so that the code knew where it was okay to draw lines. The designated seating and conference rooms also had to be connected to names stored in Shutterstock’s database and a menu so that the Wayfinder can know where to start and end paths.”
Raz Meyer, Head of Global Facilities and Operations, Shutterstock
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More Office Hacks
If you enjoyed this hack be sure to check out other Envoy Office Hacks, including:
Employees at LinkedIn get their creative juices flowing with this hack.
Square takes beta testing to a new level.
Looking for ways to inspire your employees or colleagues? Take a page from this architecture firm.
