Final Year Dissertation

Joseph Harb. “ E x plor ing the wor ld of the ‘ Wor ks p a c e E n t h u s i a s t ’. A re t h e y t h e re a l ex per ts on home of f ice design?”

Prepa red

by:

J oseph

H a r b, Pa r t A8172 95

C

U nd e rg ra d uate,

Prepared for: Dr Eddie Norman, Professor of Design Education, Loughborough

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Batchelor of Science.

3rd May 2011 Word Count: 8357

04 Abstract.

This report attempts to analyse information gathered about workspace enthusiasts. For the purposes of this report, the term ‘workspace enthusiast’ will be used to describe and identify individuals or communities of individuals who actively enhance, customise and/or design their workspaces while also sharing their ideas and preferences on various different online communities, specifically catering to this particular passion, hobby or interest.

Relevant literature is reviewed in the subjects of interior design, recapitalisation of work, the changing workplace due to changing demographics, creativity in the workplace and the use of high resolution displays for sensemaking. Information collected by workspace enthusiasts about workspace enthusiasts was analysed and conclusions were made, with the help of the reviewed literature, that; Workspace enthusiasts prefer to customise their home workspaces rather than those at the office, Workspace enthusiasts generally have the same preferences concerning the right way to organise a workspace, Workspace enthusiasts prefer large, multiscreen computer configurations and have a tendency to be attracted to Apple products, The preferences and practices of workspace enthusiast can be applied and tought to anyone who wishes to customise their own workspace.

Introduction 007 Aim. 009

Objectives. 010

Main Questions. 010

Sub Questions. 010 Review of Relevant Literature. 015 Primary VS Secondary Data. 024 Results of Interviews. 026 Discussion. 042 Conclusion. 044 Limitations of Research . 046 References. 050 Bibliography.

CONTENT

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“If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?“ Albert Einstein.

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In all walks of life, human nature implores us to find order. Organisation is a tool, which humans have utilised since the dawn of our existence. If one were to describe the age we live in, most may agree that this age is the technological age. At the turn of the last century, queues from the factories, which flourished in the industrial revolution, were taken and used to influence the offices of the age of innovation new discoveries.

The advent of the computer has changed the way tasks are performed and the way people interact with one another. As the offices we became so good at creating become less and less necessary for the same quality of work to be produced, individuals begin to become responsible for their own workspaces.

No longer are they provided with stan-

dard issue goods, mass-produced to cater everyone but fit no one. There are people in this age, who have become experts of themselves. Masters of their own penchants, these people actively organise their workspaces in the manner which suites only them, customised as only they know how. The virtual communities of workspace enthusiasts are growing, and they have made great discoveries, which can benefit us all.

This report will try to gather information about workspace enthusiasts and attempt to synthesise this information into a format which, potentially, can help others, should they wish to become involved in the obsession which is workspace design.

1 .0 I NTRODU CTI ON

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It is the intention of this report to investigate on an intimate level, the designs and characteristics of the workspaces of individuals who understand the value of customising or ‘designing‘ their workspaces. It is assumed that, in the best of circumstances, one designs their workspace to be a perfect environment to nurture creativity, problem solving and innovation. In essence a workspace, in the context of this report, is the physical environment in which a person performs the tasks related to and resulting in their work being completed.

Through the use of appropriate research, the report will set out to explore the habits and behaviours of workspace enthusiasts while in, and with regards to, their workspaces with the intention of identifying congruencies and commonalities in the

ways they organise their work environments. For the purposes of this report, the term ‘workspace enthusiast’ will be used to describe and identify individuals or communities of individuals who actively enhance, customise and/or design their workspaces while also sharing their ideas and preferences on various different online communities, specifically catering to this particular passion, hobby or interest.

Every attempt will be taken to respect the privacy of personal information, for it is a privilege for to be able to read and learn about this fascinating past time. It is understood that the information made available from such communities is personal and so, no information has been used without the consent of each individual. Written permission has been sought

and granted for images of workspaces featured in this report and no names will be used where avoidable.

In order to successfully synthesise the wealth of information that exists from the communities of workspace enthusiasts, direction will be taken from existing literature, which, as closely as possible, investigates the same things that can potentially be leaned from workspace enthusiasts. Along with appropriate literature, information will be collected from the virtual locations where workspace enthusiasts interact and exchange ideas. These online communities host thousands of images of workspaces and provide constant discourse on the methods and preferences of individuals.

1 .1 - Aims

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O bj e c ti ve s.

- To analyse the backgrounds (professions and education) of workspace enthusiast for patterns.

- Too look for commonalities among workspace enthusiasts.

- To try to determine which spaces workspace enthusiasts ‘enthuse’ over.

- To establish if the preferences and practices of workspace enthusiasts can be catalogued

and used to help others.

M ai n Q u e sti o n -

Can an evaluation of workspace enthusiast’s habits and behaviours offer a ‘how to’ guide to designing home offices that will work for everyone?

S u b Q u e st i o ns .

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Are there patterns in the backgrounds (professions and education) of workspace enthusiast?

Are there commonalities among workspace enthusiasts?

Which spaces do workspace enthusiasts ‘enthuse’ over?

Can the preferences and practices of workspace enthusiasts be catalogued and used to help others?

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Patrick Kalyanapu, 2011, Workspace, <http://setupsandspaces.com/post/2829579941/patrick-kalyanapu-pk>

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After initial research into the world of workspace enthusiasts, it was found that, even among them, there are those who wish to collate and document their collective knowledge. Websites like Setups and Space, The Setup, Simple Desks and countless others try to catalogue exceptional workspace and pick the brains of the enthusiasts responsible. For the purposes of this report, only information collected by workspace enthusiasts, about workspace enthusiast will be used. No direct primary research will be carried out and the reasons for this will be made clearer in the sections to come.

Wei, 2011, Workspace <http://setupsandspaces.com/day/2011/01/14/>

To begin with, relevant literature will be reviewed, based on lines of investigation, influenced by first impressions, conversations and feedback from workspace enthusiasts encountered on online communities. Once the relevant literature has been reviewed, appropriate information will be gathered from workspace enthusiast communities, the data will be analysed and presented for consideration. The data will be interpreted and conclusions will be drawn where appropriate. The data collected from these communities will then be compared and contrasted to the theories found in the literature, to establish if they are congruent or opposing.

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Initially, research was conducted on the Internet, aiming to find online communities of workspace enthusiasts. It was found that more often, workspace enthusiasts share images of their workspaces as a way of interacting with one another. The largest community found was a Flickr group run by the website “Lifehacker”. The group is called the “Lifehacker Workspace show and tell.” and operated solely by members uploading pictures of their own workspace. Discussions in the form of comments posted about each picture are how the community interact. This Group consists of over eight thousand photos and more than six thousand members. This site was a large source of information to get to understand what workspace enthusiasm is, but

the specific, qualitative information it offered was extremely inconsistent and sporadic. From the Lifehacker photo pool a second, similar community was discovered. Deskography.org operates in much the same way as the lifehacker photo pool yet individual members of deskography are able to upload multiple pictures of their own workspace onto their profile. Discussions again occur through comments on individual photos or on user’s profile pages. The same problem was encountered in trying to find usable, consistent data from this collection of over one and a half thousand workspace. It was the next two communities of workspace enthusiasts discovered which provided detailed, constant data about each workspace featured.

Setups and Spaces is a blog curated

by Frank Valletutti. It currently features interviews with close to 30 workspace enthusiasts, each interview consisting of exactly the same 15 questions. This set of data is crucial to the development and direction in which the research for this report was conducted.

The first question asked by Valletutti in the interviews makes clear that the majority of workspace enthusiasts, ‘enthuse’ about their home offices, at least from this sample. So far, only two workspaces featured on Setups and Spaces are office workspaces.

Another blog, The Setup, features over 100 interviews of workspace enthusiasts, but asks them only 4 questions each and provides detailed information about gender, occupation and ope-

2 . 0 Rev iew o f t he lit era t u re.

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rating system preference along with details about computer configurations.

From this initial research into the communities of workspace enthusiasts, areas of interest were identified and focus gained.

Clear direction produced the Aims, Objectives and Research questions featured in the previous section. Specifically, literature was needed for review in order to answer the following sub questions.

• What kind of work do workspace enthusiasts do?

• How are spaces usually designed?

• What makes a work environment creative?

• Are people likely to work at home, in their own personal spaces?

• Has anyone tried to describe the perfect workspace?

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Traditionally, experts have used the term workspace synonymously with ‘Office’. The title of Myerson Bichard and Erlich’s 2010 publication “New Demographics New Workspace. Office Design for the Changing Workforce.” is a prime example of the term Workspace being used to describe a more broad term, concerned with office layouts and plans. These authors have identified some very interesting truisms about the state of the modern workforce and the nature of work in this technological era. “The new workplace is set to run on creativity and brainpower.” descries the main difference between the workspaces that evolved in the offices of the early 20th century and their descendants.

The offices of the early 20th century followed the dominant economic model of the time, Taylorism, taking after the time and motion studies of factory floors, which translated into the paper shifting office. The new workspace is, however, digitally driven and thus more flexible in time and space. Myerson, Bichard and Elrich hypothesize that more time and effort will be placed on what they term, ‘Knowledge work’. Work no longer relies on time-tested processes, practiced and repeated in a supervised hierarchy but

require the application of “formal knowledge and learning as part of a culture of collaboration, initiative and innovation.”

Another manner, in which to define a workspace, would be to look at how most indoor spaces are designed. From the perspective of an interior designer, a workspace should be no different than any other space. In The Fundamentals of Interior Design (Dodsworth 2009) an entire chapter is devoted the organisation of spaces, this is telling, because when considering workspaces for a wide range of users, organisation is the one aspect of the space’s ‘design’ which all users will have control over. Some users may have built the space, provided a specification for the space or chosen the space, while others may be simply left to make do, however organisation is something we all can take control over. Dodsworth highlights some important sub categories of space organisation. The most relevant of which are; Ergonomics, Proxemics, Scale, Proportioning systems and Ordering systems. These five systems will be considered and searched for in workspaces in an attempt to catalogue patterns.

Proxemics and ordering systems, perhaps, are very interesting traits to look for in a workspace. Proxemics “is the term used to

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describe the way we interact with others.â&#x20AC;? This study can tell much about the state of the mind when pursuing creativity and innovation. Will it be found that workspace enthusiasts welcome others into their workspaces with open doors and a seat for a guest or will it be found that isolation is built into the workspaces they design? In general, however, interior design of home offices has, in the past and present, been mostly concerned with aesthetic design of a space. Interested in lighting, colour tones and storage. These aspects of the workspace may be important when initially designing the space as an architect or interior designer would, however once in the hands of the inhabitant we may find that colour, lighting, decoration and storage are the least important aspects. Conran (1985) suggests no more than minor ergonomic considerations about setting up a desk for use with personal computer or typewriter.

However, Conran does give some good advice on where to locate a workspace in the home. The room should be in a quiet part of the home, and ideally should have windows to help alleviate feelings of claustrophobia, should the room be relatively small.

Magnani (1972) gives even fewer insights into the personal relationship a user has with their workspace. These texts are understandably less useful because they are now out dated. However, while searching for modern texts on the subject it was found that fewer and fewer interior design texts include sections about home offices, rather preferring to use the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and even then describing the space in a manner which reflects a room with desk which is not a bedroom or living room. Perhaps the data provided by workspace enthusiasts will indicate that the workspace is materialised by the physical products chosen for inclusion in the space instead of the design of the space before it is used.

Others have attempted addressing the links between workspaces and creativity; in a study into the effects a work environment can have on creativity (Teresa M. Amabile, et al., 1996). The study, “Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity.” was used to create a tool named KEYS, used to “Asses perceptions of all the work environment dimensions that have been suggested as important in empirical research”. The findings and methods used in creating KEYS will be very beneficial when trying to determine cause and effect of characteristics of the workspace and in fact can be used to reverse engineer motives and reasoning for potential patterns found in workspaces. The KEYS paper

creativity. The former three factors are “stimulant scales”. What do these five factors mean then and do they relate or affect the way in which a workspace enthusiast designs their workspace?

The Keys report utilises work done by Professor Teresa Amabile’s previous work, specifically, her intrinsic motivation principle of creativity: People are more likely to be creative when, primarily, intrinsically motivated, by the enjoyment, interest, satisfaction and challenge of the work they are doing.

This intrinsic motivation can be undermined by extrinsic motivators that lead people to feel externally controlled in their work. Concentrating only on the three stimulant scales we begin with Encouragement of Creativity. Encou-

of risk taking and idea generation, a valuing of innovation on every level of management. Psychological research has be conducted and demonstrates that people are more likely to produce unusual but useful ideas when they are allowed to do so by situation or by explicit instructions (Parnes & Meadow, 1959). Supportive evaluation of new ideas (Cummings, 1965; Kanter,1938) is an important part of Organisational encouragement. The expectation of highly critical evaluation has been shown to undermine creativity (Amabile, 1979, Amabile, Goldfarb, & Brachfield 1990) while supportive, informative evaluation, instead, has demonstrated enhanced intrinsic motivation that is conducive to creativity, (Deci & Ryan,

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highlights five different factors, which are hypothesised to influence creativity.

These are as follows; Encouragement of Creativity, Autonomy or Freedom, Resources, Pressures and Organisational Impediments To Creativity. The latter two factors are sited as “obstacle scales” as they are predicted to be negatively related to development of

ragement of Creativity refers to the encouragement of the generation and development of new ideas and is descried as operating on three different levels. These levels are Organisational Encouragement, Supervisory Encouragement and Work Group Supports.

This first level, Organisational encouragement refers to the encouragement

1985). Supervisory encouragement refers to the benefits experienced by subordinates because of their supervisors. Studies have shown that the roles of project managers and direct supervisors influence goal clarity (Bailyn, 1985). Getzelz & Csikszentmihalyi (1976) report on the importance of problem definition in the creative pro-

WO R K S P A C E 20

cess, which implies the value of goal clarity. Supervisory support of work and ideas (Delbecq & Mills, 1985; Orpen, 1990) effects creativity in much the same manner as supportive evaluation, people are less likely to experience a fear of negative criticism when they feel they have support from a superior instead of scrutiny. Autonomy or Freedom are have been shown to nurture creativity when individuals feel they have relatively high autonomy in the day-to-day conduct of work and also when they have a sense of ownership and control of their own work and ideas (Bailyn, 1985: King & West, 1985: Paolillo & Brown, 1978: Pelz & Andrews, 1966: West, 1986). Amabile & Gitomer (1984) demonstrated how individuals produce more creative work when they perceive they have choice in how to go about accomplishing the tasks they are given. Resource allocation can directly affect a project’s creativity levels (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Damanpour, 1991; Delbecq & Mills, 1985; Farr & Ford, 1990; Kanter, 1983; Payne, 1990; Tushman & Nelson, 1990). Perceptions of the adequacy of resources may affect people psychologically by leading to beliefs about the intrinsic value of the projects they have undertaken. The paper “Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity.”

Concentrated only on the validity of they tool, KEYS, yet the methodology used in identifying factors which affect creativity in the workspace is valuable.

Another intriguing factor, which may have affect on a particular individual’s style of workspace, is a geographical factor of sorts. More regularly in this age of ever advancing technologies, it becomes less difficult for employees to work remotely from the main office. The home office is an important part of work. It can be used by the office worker to finish tasks out of office hours, work on side projects or in the remote worker’s case, the home office is the office altogether. A home office is an interesting space to consider as it is a space intentionally created within the home, which has much more intimate, personal relationships to the user. Often, the office can be seen as an obligatory location to do work in a somewhat supervised environment.

These conditions seem forceful and hardly conducive of creative thinking.

The home office however is created as a necessity and it can be imagined that the goal of it’s creator would be to design the space in a manner which, perhaps only subconsciously, is optimised to inspire creativity or to subdue distraction. The study: Hybrid workspace: re-specialisations of work,

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organisation and management (Halford, 2005) investigates the trend and future of remote working because of factors including the pressures of office costs and space, growth in the use of hotdesking and increased commuting distances. The study predicts a growing trend in professionals working from home. It also highlights the affect that the Internet and advances in technology, especially in telecommunications, has had on the growth in entrepreneurship. It is easier now than in any period of time for people to work for themselves, from home, if necessary, as freelancers or consultants. This is most often true in creative fields such as photography, graphic design and

While doing initial research about workspaces, a blog article was found on designshack.co.uk titled “Creating an Inspiring and Inviting Workspace. The short article, written

by Joshua Johnson, a Graphic Designer and self-proclaimed “Mac evangelist”, describes seven different steps to transforming any workspace. Beginning with ‘Cut the clutter’, Johnson describes the importance of two factors, which should influence what is allowed on one’s desk, and these are productive and inspiring. Seemingly covering all bases by advising that if something does not help in the direct completion of a task or promote creativity, it should be filed, stored or disposed of.

addresses the readers; “Remember, you are designers, not accountants.”

This assumption, or perhaps not an assumption, gives some insight into the likely nature of workspace enthusiasts. Steps three and four relate to lighting and scenery, suggesting that lighting can affect mood and the outside world can be used as another source of inspiration. ‘Wall Space’, the fifth step, suggests using the same principals applied to one’s desk when thinking about the decorating or using wall space for notes. Productive and inspiring are again highlighted as essential. Johnson then discusses the importance of accommodating and supplementing a laptop computer in

web design, to name but a few. Will the home office be found to be naturally more creative or will it be found that the home office is inflicted from the onset by inherent distractions? Also, what will be found about the types of professions, which ‘breed’ workspace enthusiasts?

The next step, ‘Embrace the Absurd’ takes queues from the Google office in Zurich, Switzerland. Arguing that unconventional and creative workspaces will foster unconventional and creative ideas, Johnson suggests the value of a reflective workspace, which represents it’s user and accommodates flourishing. Interestingly, Johnson directly

a workspace. ‘Make your laptop feel right at home’ suggests using an elevated laptop stand, external keyboard and mouse to compliment the laptop and make it better for long term, stationary use. Another suggestion is to allow for a dedicated place for the laptop should it not be the primary computer in the workspace. The closing step,

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‘More screens = more fun’, seems to draw from the experience of the author, suggesting, simply, that using more screens enhances the workspace by aiding in productivity. This article is an unscientific, informal and fun look into the ways a workspace can be improved. The most significant points made in the article are the identification of two adjectives which should encapsulate the essence of a workspace; productive and creative.

After reading the article discussed in the previous section, one point stood out above the rest.

Perhaps the most striking feature, which can be seen when looking through photographs of workspaces

searched for in order to try and identify the reasons why so many workspace enthusiasts seemed to have and favour multi screen computer configurations.

The paper, “Space to Think: Large, High-Resolution Displays for Sensemaking” (Andrews, Endert and North, 2010) investigates the advantages or using multiple, large displays in order to give the user more virtual space to think. Concentrating on sense making tasks, the paper investigates the ways in which larger screen real estate can help the user organise their thoughts and ideas digitally, in much the same way one might spread sheets of paper on the floor when trying to link stories together or spreading puzzle pieces out on a table in order to get a better overall view of the problem.

in sensemaking activities by allowing them to potentially access more data from different sources on the screen.

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belonging to workspace enthusiasts, is the frequency at which multiple displays were used in computer configurations. It seemed that the more displays a workspace had, the more popular it was in the large workspace communities such as the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell and Deskography. Further literature was

The report begins with some simple statistics about people. A standard 17” display covers only 10% of the human field of view, and only 1% of what can be seen when moving the head. On this basis, the researchers hypothesise that the introduction of larger screens will help alter the way users take advantage of the computer

During any endeavour to research a particular subject, it is desirable to use a combination of primary and secondary information sources. So far, in this report, secondary data has be collected and reviewed in order to gain an understanding of the issues, which may affect workspace design. In order to make more direct and relevant observations about workspace enthusiasts, however, it is important to collect data directly about them, or even better, directly from workspace enthusiasts. After reviewing the relevant literature on the subject of workspaces, creativity and home working, the communities of workspace enthusiasts were the next source of information. As stated previously, the two largest communities were not appropri-

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these interviews is perhaps more valuable than any information which would have been gathered independently for this report, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the questions asked, although perhaps not in line with the scholarly approach of interview and questionnaire design, are the most important questions that a workspace enthusiast felt should be asked of other workspace enthusiasts. For example, Valletutti asks in his interviews; â&#x20AC;&#x153;What beverage/food/ snack can one usually find at your desk, and why?â&#x20AC;? This question may seem irrelevant when trying to find information about how workspace enthusiast design their workspaces, however, as will be discussed further on in this report, the results of this question are more telling

interviewees had submitted images or written emails, asking to be featured on the site. This indicates that the participants were fully aware of the questions, which would be asked of them and were prepared to answer them because of a passion and interest in the subject matter. This fortifies the validity of the information collected, as, one can assume, the answers given would not have been altered or warped from the truth.

This might occur if the interviewee has attempted to make their answer as close to what they imagine the interviewer expects. If independent research in the form of interviews were to be conducted for this report, the workspace enthusiasts participating in the research may be inclined to alter, truncate or cater their

P ri ma ry V s S e c o n dar y D a t a . ate sources of coherent and consistent data, although providing thousands of different workspaces and countless comment threads. The smaller communities however are perfect sources of consistent data in the form of interviews structured similar to open ended questionnaires.

The information collected through

than at first assumed. A second reason as to why the interviews conducted on sites for workspace enthusiast, by workspace enthusiasts, would generate more valid data is the fact that the interviewees are aware entirely of the motives behind the interview. The curators of the respective sites contacted the interviewees, in most cases, after the

answers because of preconceived notions about how their information would be used, analysed and potentially, in their eyes, spun in order to reach biased conclusions.

It would be redundant and inappropriate to endeavour to covey a completely unbiased viewpoint to the participants. This would perhaps be

difficult because of the unavoidable fact that the participants will always view an independent interviewer as an ‘outsider’ to their community, hobby or passion.

Instead, the qualitative information already collected by the curators of the sites; ‘Setups and Spaces’ and ‘The Space’ will be used independently to extract and extrapolate relevant information, patterns and themes about workspace enthusiasts.

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Resul ts o f i n t e rvi e ws .

The majority of contributors to Setups and Spaces live in the United States followed by Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain, however, the sample represents people from 11 countries. The majority of these countries are European, yet they are not all English speaking countries. This range represents a real and random sample of workspace enthusiast across the world.

See figure 1.Of the sample, 27 different occupations were identified. These range from graphic designers, web designers and user interface designers to professional canoeists, lawyers and CEO of a media corporation. Although many of the occupations are never

Fig u re 1 repeated, and the most frequent type of occupation seems to be design related, it is interesting to note that nearly 50% were self employed, half working freelance while the other half were in fact in charge of their own companies or businesses.A great majority of the sample were sharing information about their home workspaces (Figure 2.). There may be several reasons for this trend. Firstly, it seems entirely more convenient to expend time and effort customising a space located in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own home rather than in an office environment, where the space can never feel oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own. Also, an office space, more often, will impose limitations on the extent to which an individual may be allowed to customise. Thirdly, as will be pointed out

Fi gure 2 in the coming sections, workspace enthusiasts more frequently use their workspaces for tasks that are related to hobbies or passions as opposed to occupationally obligatory tasks, it makes sense that the space used to ‘work’ on their passions be at home rather than where they are employed.As introduced above, workspace enthusiasts are more likely to use their workspaces on tasks related to hobbies, interests and passions.

From the sample interviewed on Setups and Spaces, 51% of enthusiasts described the main use of their space as being for ‘creative’ tasks (Figure 3.), while only 24% said it was for tasks related to their occupation.

Another 25% of the sample stated that their space was used for both

Fi gu re 3

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work and creative tasks, but through analysis of the individual answers, it was found that all participants in this 25% meant that their occupation related tasks were in fact ‘creative’ and that their passions were also their occupations, not, interestingly, that they used the space for tasks related to their occupation and tasks they perform for fun. A large majority of the sample stated that more than 50% of their ‘work’ (be it occupational or recreational) was conducted in the featured workspace. Almost 70% of the sample claimed that more than three quarters of their were was conducted in this space (Figure 4.). These results are not

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Fi gure 4 surprising due to the nature of the research subject.

It would seem logical that if people are passionate enough about work environments to actively; modify, customise, share and critique workspaces as a hobby, then these people would also use their workspaces for most of their â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;workâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This information also suggests something more tangible about these workspace

Fig u re 5 enthusiasts, what can be inferred is that these spaces are designed for use and not for aesthetics. While many of these workspaces are arguably very beautiful, it is important to note that there is a trial and error portion to the method undertaken when customising these spaces. The information tells us that workspace enthusiasts endeavour in creating a workspace, which

Fi gure 6 is usable and will compliment their work habits and behaviours. The interior designer’s approach of designing a space may prove inadequate in this situation, where the most important aspect of the space may in fact be the products the user hand picks to populate the space.

Information collected in the interviews regar-

Fi gu re 7 ding ‘essential’ items found in their workspaces revealed an interesting tread about the sample. Over 85% of the objects mentioned were either ‘computer’, ‘iPhone’ or ‘external hard drive’ in descending order.

While many other items were mentioned, including pets, pens, cameras, post it notes and notebooks, participants frequently mentioned more than two

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items, which they felt, were essential.

More often, one or even two of these items were; computer, external hard drive or iPhone. What is becoming apparent from analysing these interviews is the importance places on electronic items products and the role of the computer in the workspace. Perhaps there is a connection between the trend of occupations, mostly designers or creative professionals, and the importance of digital equipment in the workspace?

(Figure 5.)

Participants were asked to identify themselves as a Mac or a PC, most likely in homage to the iconic Apple advertising campaign, distinguishing the two as opposite and somewhat falsely portraying them as mutually exclusive. When participants answer as ‘being a Mac’ or ‘being a PC’ what they in fact mean is that they identify their majority preference as either the Mac operating system or the Windows operating system. In the sample from Setups and Spaces, only one participant identified as being a ‘PC’ (Figure 6.) , however later on in their interview they confessed their desire to purchase a Mac. From the sample at The Setup, however, there is a slightly different

situation. Only 80% of the sample identified with being a Mac, while a comparably larger proportion, 15%, identified as being a PC. 5% of the sample definitively identified as being both a Mac and a PC. The information provided by the interviews conducted at The Setup are more pertinent when discussing computer system preference among workspace enthusiasts because of the accompanying information gathered in those interviews.

The interviews conducted at The Setup only consisted of four different questions. When concentrating only on the results of the first two questions, some very interesting information can be uncovered. As mentioned in the previous section, the majority of the contributors to The Setup identify as Mac users. When viewing this data in conjunction with the participant’s occupation, we find more telling trends.

The occupations listed by the participants could clearly be divided into four separate groups. These were; Software Developers, Creative professionals, both or neither. The proportions are fairly evenly distributed, excluding the category describing participants who were both software developers and some form of creative professional. The proportions for; Neither, Developers and Creative are 35%, 32% and

WOR K S P A C E

31% respectively. Only 2% identified as being both. This information shows a relationship, which describes the propensity of designers and programmers to also be workspace enthusiasts. This may seem to contradict the conclusions drawn about what types of work participants from Setups and Spaces do in their workspaces, but after further analysis, these two trends are actually interconnected. In one form or another, over three quarters of the Setups and Spaces participants stated that the work done in their workspace was creative. As none of the participants at Setups and Spaces identified their occupations as software developers or a similar occupation we can assume that the 75% who said they do creative tasks in their workspace also had creative occupations. This is strongly supported in the data. Once this is revealed, we can now see that people who are either creative professionals or software developers tend to be workspace enthusiasts and this can then be attributed to the fact that their occupations require them to work and rely heavily on computers. This reliance on above standard computer systems and setups may be the main reason why people become workspace enthusiasts. Perhaps the pursuit of the best computer equipment for fulfilling occu-

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pationally obligatory tasks or tasks related to digital hobbies and passions translates to the pursuit of the perfect workspace. Much the same way once can assume a worker who fills his workshop with the best tools ends up having the best workshop. Water was by the most popular (Figure 7.), constituting one third of the total answers. Next were coffee, tea and sweets, respectively, while the rest shared 5% each save energy drinks, ranging in at 3%. Although these figures may seem trivial, they do describe something about workspaces and the people who are passionate about them. Most often, the reason participants only listed a drink was because they simply didn’t allow themselves to eat in their workspaces. Excused like ‘crumbs’ and ‘mess’ were common among answers. What this indicates however is the intention of preservation, which workspace enthusiasts have

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F IG U R E 1 0 towards their workspaces. Water being the most popular out of all the answers suggests the acknowledgement that if something is to be consumed in the workspace it will be the one, which cannot stain, leave surfaces sticky or cause a bad smell. Questions like “What beverage/food/snack can one usually find at your desk and why?” give intimate insight into the reasoning and logical method which workspace enthusiasts apply to their workspaces.

Two questions asked in the Setups

Figure 8

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and Spaces interviews provide very personal and individual information regarding influences and guidelines for their workspaces. Although it is difficult to compare all the answers to one another, because of how specific each answer is, it was possible to perform text analysis on the collective answers to try and decipher what the most common words used to describe the perfect workspace, by workspace enthusiasts. Figure 8 shows a word cloud generated by the answers given to questions eight and nine of the Setups and Spaces interviews. In the word cloud, the size of the word represents how frequently the word was used in comparison to other words. During the

are adjectives, and arguably all positive in nature. What is more striking is the trend found in the nature of these words. What the words suggest is the appeal to a workspace enthusiasts of a utilitarian nature. One can imagine the development of these workspaces follows a path whereby all unnecessary and extraneous objects are cut from the space, freeing it of obstacles and allowing the user to seamlessly interact with and accomplish their goals.

In the previous section, a seemingly anomalous result was found in the most common words used to describe the perfect workspace. This was the word ‘iMac’. Why is it, that when asked for ‘reasoning’s or anecdotes’

text analysis process, common English words required to form full sentences were intelligently ignored and phrases we kept whole when applicable. The top words were; simple, creative, iMac, clutter free, inspirational, functional, minimalist, tidy, clean and small.

Apart from ‘iMac’ all of these words

participants frequently mentioned a computer? In actuality, throughout most interviews, most participants mentioned their computers and gadgets frequently. In a similar exercise as the word cloud, a tally was kept from all the interviews at Setups and Spaces of how often the fifteen most popular technology related products

were mentioned. The ratios of each compared to the others are displayed in Figure 9, the most frequently mentioned technology related product through all the interviews was external media storage. It seems that workspace enthusiasts place a particular importance on the wellbeing of their digital belongings. While we established that most of the participants were creative professionals, of the Setups and Spaces sample, it may be easy to understand why they place importance on their digital work. Weather or not this takes the form of digital images, publications or even music collection, it can be understood why workspace

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enthusiasts value backup computer storage, but perhaps the reasoning behind it lies along the same path to which most other people value backup computer storage in this ever growing technological age. A Word cloud analysis Figure 10. was conducted using

the results from The Setup, taken from participants’ descriptions of their setup. The story told is the much the same, with ‘External Hard Drive’ being most popular, followed by iPhone, Canon and multiple variations of Apple computer configurations.

The results of the next portion of the research somewhat agree with the findings so far. When participants of Setups and Spaces were asked to identify one thing they could not go without, in relation to their workspace the majority answers were, not surprisingly, technology based. iPhone was the most frequent response. Followed by speakers and then variations of Apple computer models. Among the answers

Figure 9 were also, ‘Kindle’, Amazon.com’s eBook reader and ‘Wacom’ the brand name of a line of graphics tablets used for sketching digitally or as an alternative input device to the mouse. Some of the other responses range from the tangible to the intangible, such as responses like ‘Filofax’, ‘Children’ and ‘Love”. Through word cloud analysis in

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Figure 11, we can see the types of objects classed as non expendable and gain yet another insight into importance of technology in the life of a workspace enthusiast.

The Setups and Spaces interviews posed to questions relating to development of the participant’s workspaces. During the interviews, they were asked if there were anything, which they wanted for their workspaces, but did not have, and also to list the main things they would change about their workspace, if they could. The results of these questions, show in Figures 12 and Figure 13 respectively, are quite different and equally interesting. Beginning with an analysis of the things which participants claimed the wanted for their workspaces, we find the more often than not, the items listed were products. Apple Cinema Display is the most popular, followed by Drodo and Cintique. The Apple Cinema Display is a

the Setups and Spaces sample identify as being ‘A Mac’, therefore the popularity and desire for an Apple Cinema Display comes from the product being one of the more overpriced products Apple produce and possibly the fact that it does not come with any of the other Apple products. It must be purchased as an extra and therefore is most likely the Apple product which most consumers have had least experience or contact with, likely enhancing it’s appeal. The other two more popular wanted products are the Drodo, which is a external memory and backup product, which we have already established is a very important product for workspace enthusiasts. Following the Drodo, was the Cintique, a graphics tablet which integrates its own display, so the users are able to draw directly on the screen. This product is designed

what they would change, participants gave distinctly different types of answers. More participants responded that they wouldn’t change anything about their workspaces than any other response. The other, closely ranked responses were; more space, more displays, bigger displays, bigger desk and separate room, from most, to least popular.

The interviews conducted on The Setup provide a final piece of information relating to the nature of workspace enthusiasts. This information regards the proportion of participants used multiscreen computer systems and the rest who only use one monitor at a time.

What was found is that approximately 75% of each sample used multi screen systems (Figure 14). On its own, this information does not tell a great deal

high-end computer monitor, manufactured

by Apple. The large screen costs close to £1000.00, compared to the same sized monitor manufactured by Samsung, costing almost one quarter of the price. The frequent desire, then, for Apple Cinema Displays can probably explained by the previous conclusions drawn about the sample.

As concluded previously, the majority of

and manufactured by Wacom, which has already come up when participants were asked to describe products they couldn’t go without. It its interesting that the participants readily described products as the most wanted things for their workspace, especially when compared to the answers given when asked what they would change about their workspace. When asked

about workspace enthusiasts besides what seems like a popular preference. If we were to hurriedly jump to conclusions, one might believe that this is simply due to the fact that many of the participants own laptops, and thus use a monitor in order to have a larger screen. But when we cross-reference this data with theories and hypothesis closely related

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Figure 11 to workspace enthusiasts we may be able to gain an understanding of trends which may not have previously been apparent.

In the following section, the conclusions drawn from the data collected on both Setups and Spaces and The Setup will be compared to the theories, hypothesis and expert opinions discussed in previous sections of this report in order to answer

key questions on weather workspace enthusiasts should be studied further, investigating if they are indeed the real experts on good workspace design, habits and behaviours.

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38

1

Figure 12

Figure 13

4

Figure 14

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The trends suggested by Myerson, Bichard and Erlich, concerning the evolution of the workplace into one run on creativity and brainpower is much too generic to be proven correct by the collected data. However, their hypothesis about the nature of ‘Knowledge work’ is supported by the data collected about the common occupations of the samples of workspace enthusiast. The trend of creative professionals and workspace enthusiasts supports the idea that people who’s tasks require more creative thinking and innovative ideas are conducive to better working in spaces which are customised to bring out creativity and productiveness. The importance stressed by Amabile, et al. (1996) in the KEYS report, of Encouragement

of Creativity has a null effect on the workspace enthusiast because they are entirely consumed by the creativity gained by their Autonomy, or Freedom to complete tasks in whichever way they see fit, and now is best. The stress of the importance of resources is reflected by frequency and popularity with which workspace enthusiasts refer to and desire the best equipment.

For, the workspace with the best resources is one that promotes creativity.

The insights about the proper design of a space, from the standpoint of an interior designer were mostly congruent with the trends found among workspace enthusiasts.

Participants were often found to be conscious of the effects of an ergonomically considerate workspace.

40 with interior designers such as Conran, understanding the importance of solitude in order to achieve maximum focus.

Many participants showed a preference towards larger screens, suggesting a conscious consideration of scale being applied to their workspaces. The work conducted by Andrews, Endert and North is proof of the validity of this preference. As agreed, most workspace enthusiast tend to be creative professionals and so are likely to have, perhaps individually, identified the value of using larger screens for the benefits it provides when problem solving. Many participants also preferred to use multiple screens, or had the desire to buy more or

Many used laptop stands, to elevate the viewing angle of their laptops. One participant used two bricks in order to elevate the height of his monitor. Another way in which participants showed, perhaps subconscious, knowledge or understanding of how to properly designing a workspace, is demonstrated by when browsing through photos of many workspaces. In most cases, it is apparent that there is a consideration and understanding of ordering systems, many of these workspaces are well organised with regards to symmetry and other ordering systems like the golden ratio. The many participants who stated that they would move their workspace to its own room, usually because it was located in a bedroom, seem to demonstrate harmonic ideas

Disc u ssio n. new screens. In line with the findings the “Space to think” paper, it seems that workspace enthusiasts have also identified the benefits provided by multi screen computer configurations. Most likely stemming from necessity, it is understandable how large groups of designers, programmers and artists can find the value of multi screen systems when picturing the types of tasks they must perform regularly. Artists using graphics tablets are likely to use reference work on secondary screens; designers are likely to work with multiple applications open at once, the Adobe Creative suite for example and programmers are likely to code on one screen while viewing previews of the graphical output on another.

The vast majority of the samples work from home, professionally, supporting the predictions made by Halford in 2005. The ready availability of professional quality equipment and software, along with extremely fast and affordable Internet speeds allow creative professionals to work from home while always staying connected to the world around them.

After analysing the data collected from Setups and Spaces and The Setup, it is not surprising, that the advice given out by Joshua Johnson in his article about â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Creating an inspiring and inviting workspace.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; is extremely close to the way workspace enthusiast already design their workspaces. This is most likely because Johnson is a workspace enthusiast himself, but the fact that he felt experienced and authoritative enough to write an article attempting to help people redesign their own workspaces suggests that most workspace enthusiasts realise and value their own opinions and feel as though they have expertise in their passion.

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Conclusions.

Through comparing literature and real world data, collected from workspace enthusiasts, the research questions of this report were answered.

- Are there patterns in the backgrounds (professions and education) of workspace enthusiast?

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It was found that, generally, workspace enthusiasts tend to be creative professionals. This is most often the case because their occupation allows them to more easily work from home, and this makes them more likely to become workspace enthusiasts. While trying to work from home, the creative professional is likely to endeavour to create the perfect working environment, thus beginning the transformation to workspace enthusiast.

- Are there commonalities among workspace enthusiasts?

In most cases, workspace enthusiasts have much the same tastes. It seems that the Apple brand is appealing

to the workspace enthusiast. They agree that computer configurations with multiple, large displays are an ideal way to work. Workspace enthusiasts take pride and take care of their workspaces and this is reflected in the drinks, food and snacks they allow into, and more importantly, don’t allow into their workspaces. Workspace enthusiasts also agree on the main objectives of designing a workspace.

Productive and Inspirational are two key words to keep in mind when describing the things in one’s workspace. Ergonomics are important to the workspace enthusiast, who compliments a laptop with a laptop stand to ensure good posture and better typing angle. Another ‘law’ of the workspace enthusiast is the importance of external computer memory, for storing large collections of files which may be important for work or for backing up computer systems for peace of mind.

- Which spaces do workspace enthusiasts ‘enthuse’ over?

Workspace enthusiasts also agree on the best place to ‘enthuse’ about.

The home office is the perfect place to make one’s mark. Free from generics, the home office can often be the blank canvas, perfect for creating a masterpiece of simple, functional, utilitarian bliss. The more time, effort, thought and sweat one invests in a

home office, the more it becomes theirs, and, the more inspirational it becomes.

- Can the preferences and practices of workspace enthusiasts be catalogued and used to help others?

The preferences and practices of workspace enthusiasts can entirely be applied to anyone who wishes to great for themselves a productive and inspirational workspace. The following checklist is an attempt at synthesizing what has been leaned from the workspace enthusiasts.

The productive and inspirational workspace.

• Keep it simple.

• Invest in another monitor. Your ability to accom

plish work will increase.

• Backup your computers.

• Find a way to deal with clutter. Keep storage

just out of reach so that you really evaluate what

you need and what you don’t need.

• Open and simple is better than cosy and clut tered • When you can, purchase better equipment.

The more equipment is used, the more it

deserves to be the best.

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Li m i tati o n s o f R e s e a rc h.

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45 The views and opinions expressed in this report, on behalf of workspace enthusiasts, only truly reflects the views of the hundred and thirty participants in the Setups and Spaces and The Setup interviews.

The workspace enthusiast community is estimated to have over ten thousand members from most countries in the world.

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B i bl i o graph y .

J osep h

H a r b.