Lighting the Way
Building the Office of the Future
One of the most neglected facets of work is the place you’re actually accomplishing that work in. Despite a mountain of research, we still often neglect our office spaces as something that’s secondary to what we’re actually doing. Yet, throughout human history, our environment has deeply impacted us, changing our world views and our social interactions.
At Linkship we spend a lot of time thinking about culture and the environment we work in.
We’re located in Tech Artista, a truly inspiring co-working space.
When you’re surrounded by an inspiring environment with hardworking people, it gives you the drive to do it yourself.
More importantly, the space you use yourself should be inspiring. Humans are not evolved to operate in drab, sanitized office buildings that lack character and visual stimulation.
We’ve painted our walls, have a whiteboard wall, and installed an awesome hanging garden. We have books, posters, and even a bottle opener attached to the wall (we’re a startup after all).
We invest in this space because it’s an investment in ourselves. A rich environment removes the friction from working.
Can you see the light?
One of our most important investments has been a Philips Hue lighting system. Hue is a smart light system in which a bridge which connects to the internet can wireless control up to 50 lights. These lights are capable of displaying a very wide array of colors.
When we’re away we set the lights to the blue that our brand uses (which you can see painted on the wall in the above picture). When we’re working we set the lights to an array of different colors depending on the time of day and the mood we’re in. As visual creatures, humans react strongly to light and it’s made an incredible difference in our work lives.
For us, even that is not enough. Hue lights also have an API which allows you to interact with the lights. As creators of a web service, we couldn’t resist the call!
So we did what any sane person would do, we programmed our lights to turn pink every time someone (using our service) saves a link. It works like this:
The Result
When building online products, it’s often impossible to see people using your product. It’s an incredible change of pace to see our users actually interacting with Linkship in real time. It also adds a great element of surprise. Having someone literally jump for joy when the lights change color is awesome!
It’s very motivating when you have a consistent reminder that you have customers out there that you’re working for and whose lives you’re trying to better.
Beyond that, this little hack (on top of what we’ve done otherwise) has given us a large marketing lift. We’re pretty well known in the Saint Louis tech community, and it’s been driven by a cool office and a little programming. We often talk to people who already know our name. They may not know about our product, but it’s memorable and has opened a number of doors for us.
Not bad for two or three work days of time investment.
Wrapping Up
When creating things we always have to take into account our environment. Not much gets done in drab and dull office environments that leave little inspiration. Taking the time to make a space yours is a worthy investment, and the time and money will pay off far beyond what you invest.
Not everyone can do a cool lighting hack, but there an almost infinite number of ways to make a space that is cool, compelling, and joyful to work in.
If you’re in Saint Louis (or you’re going through) drop by our office and check it out! It’s visible from the front entrance, and we have this great sign on our front door:
Lastly, if you’re interested in Linkship, head on over to our site. We’re in private beta and adding users!
Come explore space with us. Both inner and outer, cyber and meat. Rock hard and link on!
