Jordan Donald

Kyle Heikkinen

Karlton Lattimore

Research Infused Design: Sharks (11.23.2010)

Throughout the conception of our project, research has always

served a relevant role. By either gauging our minds to broaden a new
perspective, or by simply validating concerns or ideologies we were already
familiar with, research has been there to strengthen our design content. The
passages below describe varying aspects of our design schemes and how
research has played a role ranging from our data collection/ interview with
the Haworth client, the use of ‘Radical Collocation,’ how research influenced
our incorporation of ‘art’ and ‘nature’ into the scheme, and how research has
played a role with our ideas for collaboration.

Interview + Radical Collocation

In our interview at the Hayworth headquarters we were tasked with

getting to know the needs and work habits of the design studio. The team
expressed their frustration at the current conditions that put them on display
for visitors and don’t allow a fully collaborative environment for them to
share work and immersed themselves in their mock-ups. Secrecy is required
to prevent corporate espionage, so their mock-ups and prototypes are
hidden separately from the workspace so visitors can observe the design
teams in action. This is limiting to the type of process the designer’s desire,
which they had in a temporary facility which was in an open warehouse type
space that allowed for a focused ‘skunk works’ setting that was conducive to
collaboration and cross-pollination of work between designers.

Our design took into account the concerns of the design studio and the
principles outlined in the Teasley article about radical collocation. The
Teasley article examined a field study of six teams in the software
development sector of a large corporation. Some teams were put into a
radical collocation strategy called war rooms. In this setting the whole team
is in one room where cross-pollination of work can occur through common
workspace and overheard conversations. This particular study showed a
doubling of productivity and an increase of morale among workers involved.
We took this information and created in our design an open space that
collocates all four sectors of the Ideation Group. By eliminating the physical
boundaries and eliminating team titles, the group can work as one and
benefit from all the interactions and work overlap that will occur in the space
we’ve designed.

Technology is a tool we use in our design to overcome many of the

barriers involved with creating an open, collaborative work environment. We
envisioned the members of the Ideation Group with mobile technologies that
would allow them to float throughout the space during the workday creating
the flexibility of structure to accomplish any design task throughout the
process of furniture design. During the interview, one designer expressed
the fact that 80% of the workday is currently spent on computers, so we
don’t envision any difficulty in the adoption of new technology solutions for
the new workplace. A series of walls that can be used to adapt the space to
different group sizes also serve as performative computing surfaces and
displays for visual connection between all those working in the space.
Awareness of all that is going on can become a strength to the group on
producing quality work at a faster pace while fostering a closer community
between the four teams in Ideation.

The design studio, in our interview, also described their feeling of

being on display for visitors that limited their ability to keep all work out in
their environment. The need for secrecy is one advantage the remote work
location gives to the Ideation group, since visitors would not be an issue and
the space allows for all work to be seen by all designers and researchers,
which allows for ease of cross-pollination as in the war room example from
the Teasley reading.

Logistically, we chose to combine the teams into one Ideation Group

since all their work builds on itself to create the designs at the forefront of
Hayworth’s lines of work place solutions. In our interview, the designers
described the current setup as linear in which the research is separate from
the design and materials are handed to designers from Ideation Research as
a finished product. We decided a more holistic approach is needed for a
truly collaborative environment between the teams. Collocation is one
method of bringing a more cyclical work cycle that allows for a collaborative
building of content and innovation where there are no boundaries or ‘steps’
to completion. We believe a richer and more efficient design environment
can come out of our design solutions.

Together, the radical collocation of all teams in Ideation and the

elimination of the distinctions within the group will allow for a more natural,
collaborative workflow that will push Hayworth to better designs and more
output of those designs.

Art
The use of research was coupled with our study of art in a way that
supported one of our key design aspects: ‘change.’ This aspect of our design
utilizes the three key components of our project (art, nature, technology) in a
way that inspires change. Given the suggestions from our interview, the
environment that we are creating needs to incorporate a constant cycle of
flux, which allows the user to re-invent their experience and re-invent their
inspiration. It is under our assumption that this process could lead to greater
design solutions and more dynamic thinking within the Haworth Ideation
Group.

Within our design, change is accommodated through the use of

artwork in a significant way. We feel that through participation of the SAIC,
we could incorporate a system in which existing pieces of Roger Brown
artwork as well as other interior pieces could be rotated, bi-weekly or
monthly, to create a degree of revelation and suspense to the users.
Research came into play here to highlight the importance of Art and
Interpretation.

In Gordon MacLellan’s article “Is it Art or Interpretation,” he mentions

different implications of art (specifically installation) and how they it should
actively interpreted be interpreted by its recipients. He mentions that good
environmental art needs to “enrich visitors’ experience” and to do this, it has
to “serve an interpretive end.” He also begins to highlight moral values of
the use of art as he claims “art isn’t there to provide answers to questions. It
should be there to generate emotional response.” This also highlights the
investigative character of art, which is just the purpose we are attempting to
use it for (how it can inspire design innovation through active interpretation).
Through and all, we used this research to validate our design idea of
‘change’ in a way that is described below (drawn off our initial presentation
at Gensler):
The images were used to suggest that the rotation of art could create
another dimension of sensibility (almost as a “5th wall”) which is constantly in
change, thus inviting new interpretations and fresh ways of thinking. The
research provided a solid foundation on how and why to incorporate art into
the grand scheme by highlighting its interpretive character as a potential
tool that could be used to inspire the Haworth Ideation workers.

Nature
Nature was also incorporated in the same way to highlight another
aspect of our design solution: personal vitalization. Based on a study
completed by a group of social scientists (cited in Works Cited) entitled
“Vitalizing effects of being outdoors and in nature,” we developed a place in
our scheme that would accommodate nature’s ability to re-invigorate its
inhabitants. Such spaces would be spread across the site and would act as
meditative portals, away from the workspace.

The ideas this study suggested were crucial to the formulation of our
‘outdoor meditative’ concept. One result shown was that higher levels of
vitality occur outside even when controlling for social/ and physical
circumstances. It was also indicated that those participants exposed to
natural images also experienced an increase in vitality. A final point to
mention was that nature mediated this effect of outdoor vitality, making it a
potential tool for energizing the employees of the Haworth Ideation group, as
in our meditative spaces. We used this information to propose the idea that
the vast outdoor space could potentially be used as ‘vitalization zones’, once
explained in this diagram:

The area in red indicates the possible location for outdoor reflection space,
based on our inferences from the vitalization study.

Collaboration
One of the most central aspects of our design was the idea of a collaborative
workspace. We wanted to create an environment that encouraged occupants
to work collectively rather than independently. We created this experience
by first, eliminating the physical barriers that would normally keep workers
separated. Instead of defining spaces with walls they were defined by a
series of levels, allowing workers
to maintain visual connection
across the work space. Tim
Brown the CEO of IDEO once
said “I want to form a company
where all my employees are my
best friends” (Brown, 2008). His
reasoning for this was that in an
environment where each person
is friends with the next, there
exists a very high degree of
trust. This open office
atmosphere that we created
demands a heightened degree of trust among employees, and this sense of
trust creates a working community where individuals may feel more
comfortable sharing their ideas with each other.

An article published on www.informedesign.com titled Improving

Workplace Productivity listed out a set of design criteria that would create
a more productive and hospitable work environment. Some of the design
criteria listed included:

• To create a hospitable work environment, provide service

accommodations to employees (e.g., staff reception area, concierge)
and account for each employee’s personal and job-related space
requirements (e.g., meeting rooms, support spaces, workstations, and
equipment).
• Be sensitive to corporate culture while at the same time supporting
individual flexibility when space planning in workplaces.
• Include informal staff support areas (e.g., cafes, break-out spaces) to
enhance communication and collaboration.
• Integrate wireless technology (e.g., wireless Internet, Bluetooth
technology) into the workplace to increase employee flexibility and
effectiveness.
The findings in this list influenced many of our design decisions, for example
in our plan we provided workers with a large and flexible work space that
they can configure and reconfigure based on their needs and activities. We
also provided more intimate spaces for quiet or small group work; these are
located in the bumped out space and the Roger Brown house. We also
located the circulation right alongside of the main work space to increase
opportunities for informal interactions which may lead to collaboration. We
also integrated touch screen technology into many of our work surfaces so
workers may share their designs and ideas wirelessly throughout the office.

The use of research has aided us greatly throughout the development

of our design scheme. By incorporating diverse forms of knowledge gathered
from a direct oratory interview, journal articles and experimental studies, our
scheme has resulted in a richer context and more validated solutions.
Throughout the different stages of our design process, we’ve used research
to gauge the client via direct interviews, to support our scheme in areas of
‘Radical Colocation, to discuss how ‘art’ and ‘nature should be involved in
our concept, and to inform the ways in which collaboration could be achieved
in our design scheme.

Works Cited

Brown, Tim. Serious Play Conference 2008, Filmed May 2008 Posted Nov. 2008 Ted
conference 2008, LLC. www.TED.com

MacLellan, Gordon. "Is it art or interpretation?" Interpretation Journal, Summer2006:

14-17.

Morgan, Andrew, and Sarah Anthony. "Creating a High-Performance Workplace: A

Review of Issues and Opportunities." Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 2008:
27-39.

Richard M. Ryan, Netta Weinstein , Jessey Bernstein , Kirk Warren Brown, Louis
Mistretta , Marylene Gagne."Vitalizing e_ects of being outdoors and in
nature." Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2010: 159–168.
Studio, Haworth Design, interview by Karlton Lattimore, Kyle Heikkinen Jordan
Donald. Haworth Interview: Design Studio (September 21, 2010).

Teasley, Stephanie, Lisa Covi, M.S. Krishnan, and Judith S. Olson. "How Does Radical
Collocation Help a Team Succeed?" experimental study, Philadelphia, PA,
2000.