As designers and manufacturers are focused on creating functional and aesthetically pleasing workspaces, we at Innovant understand the importance of user experience (UX) in office desk and workstation design. Today, I want to highlight key UX factors that can significantly impact employees' satisfaction and productivity in the office. By considering these factors, upscale office furniture manufacturers like Innovant create office desks and workstations that prioritize ergonomics, accessibility, connectivity, privacy, security, personalization, storage, and technology integration. Let's delve into each of these factors to understand their significance in designing exceptional workspaces.
Ergonomics: Promoting Comfort and Well-being
Adjustable Desk Height: Ensuring employees can customize their desk height based on their comfort and work preferences, whether seated or standing, enhances productivity and reduces the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
Monitor Adjustment: Implementing sophisticated, high quality monitor arms allows individual users to easily position their screens, preventing strain and ensuring optimal viewing angles for their eyesight without interfering with adjacent monitors or desks.
Thoughtful Material Selection: Surfaces and edges should be designed with user comfort in mind, avoiding discomfort caused by sharp edges or protruding elements like drawer pulls that could inadvertently impede movement, or worse, injure someone inadvertently.
Knee and Leg Clearances: Adhering to BIFMA standards for knee and leg clearances ensures a comfortable and unobstructed working experience for users. Extra consideration for legroom should be taken for environments with taller employees.
Accessibility: Embracing Inclusive Design
Universal Accommodation: Office desks and workstations should be designed to accommodate all employees, including those with disabilities, providing ease of access for wheelchair users and other assistive devices. Product designers should take into consideration the ease of access to cabinets, drawers and shelves by selecting high quality hinges, glides and pull hardware that are simple to operate for everyone.
Effortless Control Access: Controls and features should be designed to be easily accessible for employees with disabilities, ensuring equal opportunities for everyone to use the workspace effectively. Pairing desks with personal phones via Bluetooth technology can make employees confident that wherever they go to work within the organization they can quickly utilize their personal, saved ergonomic preferences.
Connectivity: Empowering Seamless Integration
Sufficient Power Access: Providing ample power access points, including 110V building power and lower voltage outlets for USB A and USB C charging, ensures employees can conveniently connect and charge their devices without having to crawl under the desk. Innovant has invested in proprietary power systems that can eliminate cable clutter and unnecessary occupied outlets to maximize access to power while making expansion easy and within code, anywhere in the US.
Privacy: Creating a Sense of Personal Space
Personal Privacy Features: Incorporating features such as screens and under desk modesty panels give employees the freedom to work on sensitive material without feeling exposed or distracted. As simple as this sounds to accommodate, the most forward looking customers embrace privacy details that can be quickly added and removed to suite the needs of the working environment.
Proximity to Breakout Rooms: Strategically locating desks or workstations near private breakout rooms or booths allows employees to easily access spaces for personal or confidential calls and video conferences. We’ve pretty much all learned that having calls in the open plan office is very distracting to everyone.
Security: Safeguarding Valuables and Confidentiality
Secure Storage: In the absence of lockers, assigned desks and workstations should provide secure access to personal items and materials. In hybrid offices with unassigned workstations, employees should have the means to transport their belongings to and from nearby storage facilities like lockers. Storage caddies are a great way to move personal items to and from locker and desk / workstation.
Optimal Positioning: Desks should be positioned to avoid exposing sensitive materials or password entries to passersby, minimizing potential security risks and preserving employee peace of mind. Ideally employees would never have their back to an aisle or communal area while working on a computer.
Personalization: Fostering Ownership and Well-being
Customization Options: Allowing employees to personalize their assigned workstations beyond just desk height adjustment promotes a sense of ownership and satisfaction with their workspace while maintaining the desired aesthetic of the office environment. To prevent clutter and offer more aesthetic consistency, consider offering design friendly desktop details for employees to embrace and personalize instead of letting them DIY.
Storage: Adapting to Evolving Needs
Essential Storage Solutions: Even in the digital age, employees require designated spaces to store personal items such as bags, shoes, notebooks, laptops (especially docked laptops), phones, tablets, water bottles, and other workday necessities. Offering easily accessible storage options at the workstation reduces employee anxiety about finding a suitable place for their belongings.
The traditional BBF pedestal has become a graveyard for unwanted personal items and documents. By simply having drawerfronts, especially with locks, it becomes easy to forget their contents. Considering their cost, do common pedestals still make any sense? Why not eliminate doors and drawers altogether. Perhaps employees will reconsider leaving that rotting apple or 5 year old paystub inside and instead use purposeful storage for the immediate and short term only.
Technology Integration: Seamless and Convenient Access
Secure Device Positioning: As offices increasingly transition to smaller form factor (SFF) or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) units for VPN access, ensuring safe and accessible positioning of these devices becomes crucial, both for device protection and employee convenience during maintenance or troubleshooting.
Rapid Technology Connectivity: Modern workstations should facilitate easy integration with technologies like additional screens, computer devices, docking stations, and virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs) for enhanced productivity and convenience. At Innovant we like to bring all of the common connections on the back of a PC or VDI to the desktop for quick and easy connection.
Incorporating these factors into office desk and workstation design elevates the user experience for employees, leading to increased productivity, satisfaction, and overall well-being. By prioritizing user experience clients and their designer and manufacturer partners can create exceptional workspaces that foster creativity, collaboration, and employee success.
Discover how Innovant can enhance your workplace experience. Get in touch with us at info@innovant.com.