What is a workplace?
‘Professionals serving the workplace sector would benefit from widening their definition of workplace to address different applications and user needs.’
Designing the workplace today requires consideration of the emotional needs of the worker, as well as the physical needs of the company. Workplace well-being has become very important, considering both the mental and physical health of workers as an employers duty of care.
Well-being in the context of the workplace is a wide subject and can include everything from the amount of lighting to nutrition, ergonomics and individual tasks.. Solutions to various workplace issues can be found in simple physical interventions, as well as more technologically advanced ideas. Interest in this area has grown and so we thought it would be a worthwhile challenge to set the second year product design group at Bounemouth University.
Having first set the brief in 2018, it was deliberately broad so that the students could consider workplace well-being in the widest sense. As a result it generated a range of ideas from devices that promote social cohesion, air quality and personal temperature. It was the first time I had worked with Bournemouth University, and so I was delighted to be invited back and to run the project again in 2019.
Building on the success of last years group, it was interesting to see how this years cohort, working with the same brief, instinctively interpreted the workplace in much broader terms to include schools and hospitals in addition to the typical ‘office’. As a group, they had highly developed ideas about social cohesion, personal security, fitness and healthy living.
Split into teams, each group had to establish their project efficiently and then manage the team dynamics to exploit different skills within their group. The aim was to create as close to a real-life project scenario as possible. Mentoring them through the process, they displayed maturity and sophistication in how they made decisions, manage their time and framed the focus of their projects. Some demonstrated an ability to think very broadly and went outside the university to gain insights and advice. As an example, one team worked closely with a local hospital to understand the issues around communications and information sharing in a clinical setting, and another with a disability group.
Taking education establishments as workplaces, one team developed a response to knife crime in the UK and gun crime in the USA. A harsh topic to consider, but valid when the idea of ‘workplace well-being’ is considered in the context of an employers duty of care.
There were two projects that stood out for me, one was an information device aimed at clinicians and patients. A stick-like device would be worn by the doctor or nurse and the patient would wear a smart wrist band. For the doctor, the device was in-effect, a super-enabled pager that could relay messages as well as critical patient data, pulling together all kinds of information, test results etc. For the patient, it was an enabled identity bracelet and bio-monitor.
Focussing on the different users, the result was two specific devices. Behind it, there would need to be a highly capable network service and database. Although that is a familiar idea, the interesting thing for me, was that the focus was about a very specific application that would improve working practices for hospital staff, and improve the quality of response for the patient.
The second project that stood out was Smuuvi. A system of storing, mixing and dispensing healthy ‘smoothies’. Designed to deliver a subscription based service, the design consisted of a unit that included chilled hoppers to store formulated pellets of different ingredients, a water tap and a mixer. Each user would have their own special bottle that would fit into the machine. As a new take on the drinks vending machine, the more wholesome set of ingredients and desire to be fresh, would make the service that comes as part of the subscription model essential. However, it reflects a growing interest in healthy eating and consistent with data that suggest the drinking of conventional beverages, like tea and coffee is in decline among Gen X.
From my observations of working with this group, it seems that the connection between design and social responsibility is emerging as an implicit requirement. Product design cannot escape the need to deal with environmental sustainability, or create ideas that keep us safe and healthy. Given the amount of information and media about climate change, plastic waste or street crime, we should expect our thinkers and inventors to be influenced by the time they live in, no matter how big the challenge.
With this brief focussed on the ‘workplace’, I would not have been surprised if this was exclusively interpreted as an office or studio setting. However, without any direction from me, the group interpreted the workplace very widely and rightly so. It is true that the workplace takes on many forms. Workstyles have also become much broader leading to functional cross-over between different environments such as hospitality and corporate, or corporate and home.
Mobile communications and technology has untethered the worker, possibly liberating them and challenging the traditional idea of work. It was good, therefore, that this group put their own spin on the brief and surprised me with a very open idea of the workplace.
To me, this suggests that those professionals serving the workplace sector, would benefit from widening their definition of workplace to address different applications and user needs.