Playful office design: all in the details
The clich茅d foosball table, dreaded bean-bag or obligatory slide 鈥� some people think of these when you say 鈥減layful office design鈥�. I wondered how we could get beyond these when I was recently invited to give a talk, in the heart of the London design community in Clerkenwell, on that theme.
I began with some high-level findings from the insightful BCO piece Nicola Gillen and June Koh produced (Technology, Media and Telecommunications, BCO), followed by a couple of case studies where we delivered both the strategic vision and design, pointing out the link聽 between the influence of new ways of learning聽and what the next generation are expecting in the workplace.
I also highlighted a point very dear to me 鈥� good design (can be playful and) needn鈥檛 be expensive.聽 The age-old clich茅 holds true: 鈥榠t鈥檚 all in the detail鈥� 鈥� I often discover great examples of doing a lot with little, for example the 鈥楧O NOT FEED THE RECEPTIONISTS鈥� sign pinned up in a leading advertising agency鈥檚 reception.聽 It鈥檚 a simple A4 printed piece of paper mounted with blu-tak, super-cheap yet very effective, instantly describing the culture and tone of voice of the organisation, the minute you walk through the door.聽 In our own office here at 91影视, we have a completely un-high-tech solution for seeing who is in and who is out-and-about: little printed portraits of everyone in the team, magnetically pinned to a writable surface (see image below). I鈥檓 not suggesting either of the above are right for every organisation, but I am certain that low-cost, meaningful design touches can be tailored for every organisation.
My final point to make was the notion that 鈥榩layful鈥� design needs to have more substance than the clich茅s. When we were children, we spent the vast majority of our time playing, in particular role-playing 鈥� we created and imagined scenarios, environments, characters and even whole worlds. When you think about life as a designer, we continue to do this: we spend our days pretending to be the client, customer or user, in order to propose the best design solutions. The most successful of these, in my opinion, are the collaborative spaces where you get the 鈥榬ight鈥� people coming together to do the 鈥�5 Ds鈥澛犫�� discuss, discover, design, develop and deliver.
To do all of this, we need to create environments that encourage creation and discovery, without fear of failure or rejection, because it is precisely this fear that leads to conservative solutions and a lack of innovation.
Tim Brown (CEO of ) discusses this notion of 鈥榩lay鈥� and its importance in a talk from a few years back 鈥� I鈥檓 not sure I particularly agree with everything he鈥檚 saying but he raises some interesting points (watch it ).
I鈥檇 be interested to hear more thoughts on this 鈥� please comment below and feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the talk or the subject.
Gavin Hughes (gavin.hughes@aecom.com) is an associate director of design with 91影视’s Strategy Plus practice in London.