We’ve heard experts talk about humanising the workplace through sensory experience, but what does that actually mean in practice? Sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste all contribute to how we feel within our workplace. In this series, we look at how your environment impacts your mood, and how to use it to boost productivity.

Claire Watson-Gold

Senior Project Designer

Monday, 1st October 2018

2 minutes read time

About Claire

Let’s take a look at workstations.

We’re fans of activity-based working, which means being able to work from a variety of settings around the office to suit the task at hand. These secondary spaces are supplementary to your ‘standard’ work areas, which may be in an open plan setting, private or semi-private offices.

How your primary work areas are designed will go a long way in promoting productivity; after all, this is where your staff spend the majority of their time!

Superdrug

For those that sit at a desk most of their day, you’re going to want to make sure that workstations are bright, invigorating and inspiring. We worked with Superdrug to bid farewell to grey partitions instead used colour coordinated partitioning that matched the large brand prints scattered across each floor. Not only does this provide a bight colour splash, but also reinforces their brand proposition, giving each employee ‘that Superdrug feeling’ each day!

AMC Networks

The benefits of natural light can’t be overstated, and where possible we recommend maximising the quantity and quality of daylight. However, make sure that your lighting solution fits the work being carried out.

At AMC, their video editors spend most of their time looking at a computer screen, so to help their eyes focus and reduce glare, we installed dimmed lights and black desks to make editing less tiresome on their eyes.

You could also consider lights with individual controls for personal preference or different tasks, using energy-efficient lighting and incorporating a complementary colour palette.

AMC open plan office design with natural light

Autodesk

Some people are messier than others but overall there should be some effort towards tidy, organised workstations. Clutter bombards our minds with unnecessary stimuli and stress, whether it’s seeing towers of paperwork, feeling dusty surfaces or smelling your neighbours trainers under their desk.

The humble pedestal, lockers and other storage solutions can help alleviate excess mess-related stress. Just like Autodesk, you can use storage areas to add a touch of colour or branding to the space.