Workspace design
One of my favourite topics just started to get an airing on the web, Work Space design. It’s been an interest of mine ever since I can remember, it’s the frustrated Architect in me, (I was never good enough at art to take it at University). Anyway what really bugs me about the topic is my belief that it has a huge impact on individual and team effectiveness, but receives very little focus and even less investment by many companies. Even companies that reap huge profits from their consultants tend not to invest in their productivity. I talked about this in a previous post, but mainly from an IT SW perspective.
Since I have been working from home I have invested quite heavily in my own work environment and I certainly notice a huge improvement in my productivity. The biggest improvement comes from two large monitors driven from the same desktop PC, supplemented by a management console that I use to monitor my lab and anything else that I need to check frequently. I also have a dedicated portable that I can just pick up and carry away whenever I need to move around the house, I use a dedicated portable for this because I don't get any issues with windows being resized and moved around between monitors and because I want my primary machine to be my desktop, (that way I get two large 19" monitors").
As all of my machines run Windows Terminal Services, X Windows or Remote Desktop, I can easily connect to any of them from any machine, and I have dedicated short cuts to them all to make it really quick. As my desktop is running Windows Server 2003, I have two short cuts one to take over the console, and the other to login a separate session.
I have made a few other investments:
1. A fan to keep the air moving
2. A nice big table next to my desk in case I have meetings or need layout space
3. Everything within easy reach
4. A great scanner and Paperport to minimise the amount of paper clutter
5. A good but simple filing system
6. Music
7. A good speaker phone
8. A desk lamp
Anyway that’s a bit about me. But what about a workspace design in a corporate context, I might talk a bit about my experiments in this area, (mainly flexible offices), in another post but I wanted to link to some other interesting posts that I have just come across.
It starts with the results of a survey by Microsoft which concludes:
Nearly two-thirds of office computer users tie the fatigue they experience during the week to working at the computer for long periods. In addition, nine out of 10 said the design setup of their workstation directly affects their ability to be most productive at work. More than 50 percent of those surveyed said one of the best ways employers can show their commitment to employees' success is to provide them with the latest technologies so they can do their jobs more efficiently.
I particularly liked this bit:
This compares with 23 percent who said they would prefer motivational tools such as morale-building and social outings, and 16 percent who would opt for perks such as free soda and parking, which are commonly offered in workplaces today.
It goes on to say:
Researchers have found that individual performance increases by 25 percent when employees use an ergonomically designed workstation
However this is from a study in 1991, so is probably not that relevant today, but check it out and make your own judgement. 25% is a lot!!
In a similar survey by Logitech, reported by CNN, it states:
In a survey by office furniture manufacturers Logitech asking workers to grade the design of their workspace, 56 percent rated their office or cubicle as a "C" or below.
Only six percent of employees gave their office an "A" grade.
More than half of those who rated their desks as "C" or worse said they would feel more valued if they were given more input into shaping their environment and 84 percent said their comfort levels could be improved.
According to the research, workers now spend an average of 37.5 hours at week at work -- more than 14 hours a week longer than in their living room -- and a majority say they place equal importance on the comfort and design of both.
To get you thinking here are some hints and tips on Work Space design taken from PowerHomeBiz.com
· Do try to arrange your space in an L-shape or triangle, with a swivel-style desk chair in the middle of the configuration. With a spin of your seat or a slight roll backward or to the side, all essentials are within arm's reach.
· Don't skimp on comfort, especially when it comes to your desk chair. Choose one with a cushioned seat and back, adjustable height so your feet are flat on the floor, a back that tilts and curves, and wheels on the bottom to get around easily.
· Do group equipment and furnishings into different centers of operation. These might include your computer, phone/fax, mail handling area, and worktable.
· Don't be stingy about storage space and lighting. Put in as many cabinets, cubbies, and shelves as you can without crowding your workspace. Illuminate individual work areas with their own direct lights.
· Do plan with portability in mind. Cordless phones and laptops allow you to move your work close to your children, if necessary. Other portable conveniences are furniture on casters, baskets that can quickly be repositioned when needed, and a rolling cart to easily transport files and correspondence so you can work in the kitchen, family room, or even outside for an hour or so.
· Don't set up your office where it should be; put it where you want it to be.
· Do personalize the room by hanging up children's drawings and other favorite artwork, propping family photos on the desk, painting the walls your favorite color, including a knickknack or two, and adding other special touches. These not only make for a cozier space, they can help reduce stress.
· Don't do everything at once if money and/or time are tight. Start with the bare-bones basics, adding on when you can afford more. As your profits increase, you may even consider hiring a professional designer to help you make improvements. Most charge between $75 and $150 an hour for a consultation, and it would not take long to toss around some design ideas.
· Do plan for future growth. Architects and designers recommend that you project 25 percent more space than you currently require, especially if you're remodeling your home to accommodate an office or buying a new house with work-at-home potential.
PowerPoint, putting the audience in control
One of my friend's posts pointed me to beyond bullets a blog about communications. It was strange because a few minutes later I came across another link in another feed I was reading so I decided to check it out. I liked this post on the Presentation Dashboard, an idea for putting the audience in control. I like this concept very much and have used it myself many times in different forms; here are a few of them:
1. I have created several PowerPoints that I designed not to be presented but to be emailed out or web delivered and navigated around. This was done with lots of buttons and links and was very effective. We also used this idea for training courses
2. This worked so well that I changed my PowerPoint standard template and so that I created a master slide with index buttons all the way down the left hand side. Because it was in the master it appeared on every slide. When I presented it made it very easy to jump around the presentation following up on any topics the audience wanted to discuss. Depending on which section you were in the appropriate link had a bright yellow border, this prevented me getting lost, (some of the packs had 100 plus slides), and gave the audience context.
3. I also created quite a few master presentations that linked to other presentations. Each link went to index pages. These worked great to, I called them "Master Slide Packs" and were particularly useful for new users joining my teams.
4. Finally I evolved the master slide pack idea, and started doing document maps, again full of links to documents and presentations. Sometimes these maps were graphical, but I think in the end the narrative types were the best because they allowed me to talk through a project from its history and background all the way through to the latest information and how to keep up to date with the project. As you followed the narrative there were links throughout to the documents, document libraries, presentations or associated web sites.
All of these were examples of putting the audience in control. I use X1 to index my PC, I just checked I have 699 PowerPoints on it at the moment!
It's when I see something like this that Microsoft really disappoints me!
I have just been sent details of this InfoPath web application by Microsoft. I should have been pleased, but I was very disappointed, not by InfoView which seems to be a great way of publishing an InfoPath form so that it can be completed using a web form, but because Microsoft did not ship it!
Microsoft would have got such a different reception and eliminated a lot of trust issues if InfoPath had been positioned as a web form designer, offline editor and aggregation tool, with a complementary web forms interface for those not able to take advantage of the native client. I can not believe that developed in parallel with the thick client developing the web client would have been that big a deal either.
Anyway Microsoft chose a different route and instead of being seen as producing a great innovative standards based product that demonstrated the best of rich and reach, they chose a route that exposed them to constant criticism over attempting to lock people into Office and Thick Client technologies!
Come on Microsoft examine everything you are planning from the perspective of those who are uneasy about your track record, I think it will be your best long term form of marketing!
Next steps
I had some very good news today. I am to be working for most of my time for probably 6 months or more on alternative desktop solutions, looking at what the viable alternatives are to the Microsoft Desktop solution. This is an end to end review, ie not just looking at the Operating System, but at:
- The operating system
- The layered personal productivity tools
- Integration with peripherals and PDA's
- The service and systems management tools
- The security tools
- The integration issues
- Application compatability and portfolio migration issues
- The data and personality migration issues
- The TCO issues
- The user change/culture change issues
- Changes to my companies service model and associated technologies
- Some of the issues that result from running a mixed environment, or a parallel environment, for example VMware hosted
- The architectural changes, eg thick or thin client, application delivery approaches
- Some of the strategic differences including those that arise from the different motivations of Microsoft and the alternatives
- The decision making process that a client needs to go through before choosing to go the alternative route
I won't be posting much more detail than this in my blog, but you can expect some of the key questions that I am asking myself to be posted along the way as I try and pick my way through such a lot of different factors. Its quite interesting to be starting work on this just a day after my posting on Zealots!
If you look at my blog on posts related to this topic, these are the most important:
Rich Versus Reach - my perspective
Personal Information Disaster!
Microsoft: Linux isn't cheaper