Forms of Work Design #1
How to strategically design collaborative work environments?
When trying to define work environments, is easy to stumble in the ambiguity of the term. A work environment is both a social arena where interactions, behaviors, organisational policies, culture, shape how a community works; and a physical platform that offers a set of tools, technologies, and space for work operations to take place.
However we choose the elements that define the ontology of work, the reality is that work is a domain that includes both these sides. The former has a strategic nature, the latter is more material and tangible.
To design work we need to connect the parts of the design process involving strategic thinking, with the material design of the space and tools — either physical, digital or visual ones — that support and enable work operations.
Bridge activities and methods
In this list I want to share how in our projects and interventions we translate the “intentions of the space” into material qualities, considering how a space create value for users and providers and how it satisfies organisational goals. I call this set of methods “bridge activities”, they are spatial-based co-design methods within our Work Design framework.
In these methods the space is a pivot of that helps keeping the design intervention grounded and contextualized, but it is not necessarily always the goal. Some projects in fact might start from an existing or hypothetical space, and only be aimed at designing “what happens in the space”, which are completely intangible work processes & methods.
User Research for Space
Scenario: You are designing an upcoming space from scratch or redesigning an existing space to serve a growing community or an user base that don’t find spaces serving their specific needs. If you want to avoid building spaces that will go unoccupied or neglected, you need to understand what users expect and need and how operators will work and collaborate in the space. In these situations we conduct field research, contextual observation and co-creative research. The goal is to anticipate users expectation in order to avoid building spaces that will go neglected or misused.
Results:
- Reports and visualization of actionable insights on user behaviors
- Journey mapping and user archetypes
- Overview of challenges/opportunities for space functions and organisational models
Connections with tangible artifacts:
It affects the layout of the space, how you offer services in there, how people perceive your product-service and therefore informs look & feel and service experience.
Idea Generation through Speculative Design
Scenario: You are thinking to build a new work space because you noticed that people around you are working in different ways and technologies and new types of organization will soon change the work opportunities in your area and industry. You are unsure about how what spaces and services will be needed to accommodate these future work styles.
For this reason we constantly curate and present evolving trends on the future of work and collaborative environments that we share through talks or lectures. We allow participants to build possible future scenarios and build prototypes of future spaces and products.
Results:
- Representations of new ideas through three dimensional models
- Low and middle fidelity conceptual and functional prototypes
- Role play of space-human-technology interactions
Connections with spatial design:
It helps decide what policies will regulate the space and what service experiences will be available through physical infrastructures accordingly to the scenarios of future ways of working adapted to your context.
(MONTREAL DESIGN CLUB)
Prototyping and Testing of Space Experiences
We adopt generative, in situ and embodied prototyping techniques to materialize, refine and test the design of spaces. Engaging providers and users in its co-design.
Results:
-Functional models of the space
-Narrative representation of experience qualities and interactions
-Workflows
Connections with spatial design:
Visualizing and testing the actual design of the space together with all stakeholders. It speeds up the design development and benefit for the consideration of all needs and contributions.
Space Facilitation , Collaboration Fit-Out and Toolkits
We set up temporary environments dedicated to collaboration and workshops.
Results:
- Layouts of space setups for group and break out activities
- List and provision of ad hoc workshop supplies
- Library of tools (toolkits) and descriptions of methods facilitation
- Training on facilitation techniques and mansions
- Team creation and in person facilitation
Connections with spatial design:
It is “interior design for workshops” that scales up to permanent spaces and produce props, toolkits and guidelines to run co-design activities.
Service Design for Space
Through spatial mapping of service experiences. We integrate physical and digital touchpoints for a multi-channel fruition of the physical environment.
Results:
- Blueprint of the experiences
- Service principles
- Touchpoint prototypes and testing
- Implementation road maps
- Space operations manual
Connections with spatial design:
This is functional to offer a range services within physical spaces as well as designing the space as a service itself, like for example a coworking space, a co-living or any other type of shared environment.
These methods elevate the idea of Spatial Design to the more holistic concept design of an environment, with a specific focus on collaborative and work environments. We developing these activities because we learnt along our way that even a very functional design of a work space will only be successful if thought from the perspective of human interactions and experiences.
Drop us a line at anto@studio-we.com to let us know in which situations you would find these bridge activities useful for your workplace or project!
We are looking for test environments where to test our methods and further developing the connection between strategic and spatial design.
