HomeOffice
Personal 2020
Inspired by the number of people displaced to work at home during the covid-19 pandemic, HomeOffice explores how people interact with their workspace and how to help make any space a viable work area.
Precedent
To begin, I set out to look at the precedent many were familiar with at the start of the pandemic - working from home. Many studies had proven that it’s more effective for an employee working at home to have a separate space for their work and play. Separating work, play, eating, and any other actions one might do in the home is beneficial for the user. However, not everyone has that space or that ability.
Takeaways
The interviews were incredibly eye opening into the specific issues and conflicts these people were having with their home work environments. I gained insights on why this idea is worth pursuing, what issues they had with their physical space, and how an ideal work environment could help support them in doing their work.
Target Persona
Next, I developed a persona that was the target of the product that I was developing based off of the insights I gained during the interviews, as well as developed an aesthetic framework that would guide the visual direction of the product.
Ideation
Many sketches were developed during this phase of the project investigating various ways that the needs of the persona could be resolved. While some concepts were larger scale full desks and some smaller products meant to augment a workspace, they all considered different ways a work station could improve someone’s productivity, excel in managing distractions, and aid with organization.
Selected Direction
The selected direction was a stacking piece of furniture in which each layer had different functionality to provide to a home office. Together, the system helps the user organize their space physically and mentally, and helps whatever space they have in the home adapt to become a home office.
CAD Exploration
Ideation of the concept was continued in Rhino 6, where overall form and construction were explored. After running through a series of models, a combination of concepts was synthesized into the final model.
