Design Matters: A Guide to Office Design

In today's competitive business landscape, a well-designed office is no longer a luxury but a necessity. A thoughtfully crafted workspace can significantly impact your company's productivity, sustainability, and overall success. That's why we're excited to offer you a comprehensive guide to office design, packed with expert insights and actionable strategies to transform your office into a hub of innovation and efficiency.

This report looks at the role of workplace design in reviving company productivity as organisations in every sector and at every scale look to develop new strategies to meet the evolving conditions that arose after the impact of COVID-19. The resulting guide to office design takes a ‘deep dive’ into the design factors that will shape the new landscape for work, and at the design processes that will enact change.

This paper examines the relationship between workplace design and productivity, which has a long and rich history, and proposes a new classification framework for designing. Why this focus on design, and why now?

Area has been exploring the parameters of organisational productivity in a series of research reports in partnership with WORKTECH Academy. We believe there has never been a better time to talk about what and how we design, because it is vital to company performance now and in the future.

What is office design?

Office design is more than just redecorating your office space, it is about creating an environment that enhances productivity, collaboration, smart connectivity between those in office and remote, and a space that promotes your brand image and company values. Office design is about creating a purposeful space, personalised towards employee preferences and your company’s bespoke working culture.

Why is office design important?

Office design is not just an investment in your brand image; it profoundly influences company culture, employee wellbeing, and productivity. There are numerous benefits to redesigning your office space, considering modern working standards, prioritising comfort, fostering creativity, and accommodating diverse working style preferences. All of which can be enhanced through good office design.

How does office design affect productivity?

In our downloadable guide to office design, we explore the scientific evidence and correlation between office design and productivity.

Effective office design can help to:

• Reduce stress levels

• Boost creativity

• Project culture

• Rebuild interactions

Office design goes beyond aesthetics; it plays a crucial role in shaping the work environment, influencing employee mindset, collaboration, and overall job satisfaction - all of which are directly tied to productivity. This can be done through design elements such as enhanced natural lighting, creating a comfortable space with ergonomic furniture, lifting mood and wellbeing through the addition of biophilic design and designing various working styles for flexibility.

In 2018, as part of our productivity series, we conducted a global survey with 120 organisations around the world which identified four key factors that contributed to company performance: leadership, wellbeing, technology and environment. In 2019, we took the most highly rated factor – leadership – and looked at how design could support different leadership styles. And in 2020, as the global pandemic started to take its toll on mental health, our subject was wellbeing. With the help of experts, we charted how a new people-centred agenda was emerging around health and wellness.

In 2021, with a return of the office underway as part of a hybrid future of work, we decided to focus on the design of the work environment itself. There are key reasons for this. We noticed that the global conversation around the post COVID-19 workplace was heavily weighted towards what needed to happen in the areas of technology and management, whereas design was relatively under-represented in the debate.

We observed that in a time of growing uncertainty and complexity around the future role of the office space, clients needed more guidance and clarity around how design decisions could lead to desired organisational outcomes, and that a comprehensive guide to office design would be widely welcomed.

People and technology are both essential to the future of work, but so too is place. Design of the environment makes strategy visible. Now more than ever, designers and their clients and collaborators need a shared language and a shared set of vectors on the map. The design framework at the heart of this report is our contribution to the debate. We hope you will join the dialogue.

If you want to discover the secrets to creating an office which not only looks the part, but actually helps to improve company performance, staff retention, employee wellbeing and overall efficiency and productivity our guide can help you make the right decisions for your business.

Download our full guide to office design today.