I work in end-user computing and we are pretty focused on improving personal productivity, mobile working and collaboration, but the irony is that for all the buzz about mobile working our users spend most of their time sitting down and it’s not good for them. For background I’ve linked to...
I’ve been helping out with office designs at work over the last few weeks and it’s interesting to watch the challenges raised when I make suggestions that compromise density in the service of increasing productivity. This is a common theme, every time I’ve done an office design the facilities manager...
There’s endless talk on the blogs about the dangers of sitting often linked to the benefits of a standing desk. I agree completely with the former, but the idea of standing still for long stretches of the day fills me with horror. In my experience there’s nothing worse for me...
I’ve been passionate about workplace design for over 20 years, in fact I think my interest started way back when I redesigned my bedroom in preparation for my GCSEs. My Dad had bought me a large office desk that was surplus to requirements and it transformed my home working environment. ...
We tend to think everything’s improving all the time, and that only grumpy old folks (like me) think things were better in the past. But with problems like information overload, the decline in conversation, obsession with smartphones and lots of other disruptive change it might be worthwhile to look back...
As I’ve said on this blog many times, throughout my career my over-riding motivation and interest has been to make peoples lives better. For the last 20 of those years it’s been by improving their productivity, eliminating frustrations, improving autonomy, enabling effective team working and creating work spaces that enhance...
I read this tweet today, quoting outgoing Citrix CEO Mark Templeton : "Citrix started with a fundamental idea that work is not a place" Mark Templeton @Citrix CEO #CitrixMobilityDC — David Smith (@DavidSmith_IT) June 10, 2014 Having worked on collaboration services for decades and promoted virtual team working, mobile working...
As part of HP’s happiness at work initiative they have listed 25 new places to work. I’ve repeated the list (minus a few of the less relevant ones like the Eiffel Tower!) below with my comments in blue: The garden. There’s nothing like an English summer. And even if the...
Looks like Microsoft is finally realising that custom workspaces is one of the keys to increasing employee productivity. Rather than assuming that individual offices is the only – and best – way to work they are now moving to a building design that can evolve with the needs of the...
Tom Davenport is spot on, with this post: Here’s a next big thing: companies will need to redesign their workplaces to better fit the needs of knowledge workers. The idea that we should spend our workdays in boring cubicles — either in big downtown buildings or suburban office parks —...