Aboard the Research train

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, organisations often face the challenge of siloed working practices, where teams and departments operate independently, hindering cross-disciplinary collaboration and idea exchange hence the brief – to enhance communication, people identify synergies and navigate practical issues across various domains. Through brainstorming, we laid out different sectors we were interested in researching and looking into communication gaps that could exist within them. To keep things simple, we focused on transport, hospitals, local areas, housing, and commercial businesses.

We explored relationships between people at work and how this impacts collaboration and communication and later branched out onto the video streaming platform, YouTube, for research on established companies or organisations and how their spaces are set up. The second video however, takes a different twist as it ventures into how open offices have been around for a long time but have relatively been misunderstood for their role in workplace culture. It further explores where open offices and cubicles came from, and whether they are really what we want?

We established that there was a connection between the physical design of an office space and the different verbal communication tools used to foster better communication among employees. The design of the office can impact the effectiveness of different communication tools, and vice versa. For example, an open office design can encourage collaboration and make it easier for employees to have impromptu conversations. This design can complement the use of verbal communication tools such as face-to-face conversations, team huddles, and brainstorming sessions.

Workshops and Experiments

In order to gather relevant data about work experiences, we split into two groups, one focusing on workshop activities and the other experiment activities. We conducted different experiments to investigate how people interact and collaborate with each other under varying circumstances and environments including: AirDrop your favourite photo, Share your favourite Song, MA UX vs IxD Challenge and MA UX vs IxD Challenge. We held a varied number of workshops at the Barbican Centre including the Questions & Answers workshop, Team-Tac-Toe, Metaphor Workshop which helped us understand how people around us view the work environment from their point of view.

Insights from the activities

• Engaging in activities that are enjoyable can effectively enhance interaction and foster the initial stages of a collaborative relationship.
• People are more willing to share personal information anonymously given a public setting and prefer indirect interaction with strangers rather than face-to-face interaction.
• People are less willing to interact when they feel the information reception is unequal.

Alongside individual interviews with friends and relatives, we had our first group interview with a member from the Bexley Council, K.G (initials). The core insights were that relations were restrained because of monetary incentives and/or fear of judgement. This enabled us be more considerate of the ways in which we could redirect our questions and focus to broaden the possibilities from which we could intervene as designers. Shortly after the presentations, we interviewed K.T (initials) who is Principal Project Officer, at the Greater London Authority (GLA). We found in our analysis of K.T's interview that the positive aspects of communication outweighed the negative. The insights from K.T were summarised into having clear goals, collaboration, flexibility and power, and communication.

Idea A: CrossConnect

Through looking at the conveyor belt as a metaphor, identifiable designated spaces which serve as catalysts for cross-level collaboration that include mentorship sessions, cross-functional project discussions and a venting room to break hierarchical barriers.

Idea B: Matchmaking

In this approach, individuals would be able to “tune” their work-lives and collaborate with other work colleagues through work modes, by matching them with others of similar interests and requests. We established that the most effective way we could execute this, was as a digital tool. The Dial, for customizing relationships, would aim to enhance collaboration, focus, social interaction and relaxation within the office space. It would offer a visual and tactile way to express preferences, match individuals with similar modes, and promote meaningful connections based on shared interests and moods.

We further outlined the following as the challenges that we would be facing with the design and implementation of both ideas:

• Incentivisation
• Testing and refining
• Co-ordination and scheduling
• Maintaining engagement and participation

By turning the Dial to their desired mode, individuals indicate their current preference for the type of interaction they are seeking. To facilitate meaningful connections, the Dial's matching feature would pair individuals who have selected the same mode to create an environment where people with similar preferences and moods can connect and engage with one another. With the dial, collaboration would be enabled through matching users to fellow work colleagues with the same work‐mode when they are matched or in close proximity through the Dial or other portable objects. These include:

• Focus mode – The equivalent of a do not disturbmode on mobile devices but approached from a human perspective. This would let users customise their notifications and de-list them from online matching server.
• Collab mode – Letting users know that their colleagues that they are open to collaborate on various projects and can get help when needed on request. A typical usecase scenario would be:
• Unwind mode – Enabling the initiation of interactions and connections by letting the user's colleagues know that they are ready to unwind from the day's tasks for example by grabbing a coffee, or getting lunch.

What could go wrong?

• People may match with the person they do not like.
• They may also not choose to and they ignoring a particular person on purpose as they can select or filter who not to match with in the different collaboration user‐modes.
• A possibility of using the digital product as a dating space in similar usage as Tinder which may go against work policies. We solved this by adding Report and Help functionalities.
• People may forget to use the dial.
• People don't use the dial!
• Turning OfficeMix into a monitoring device for employees at different levels.
• People competing about how long they are on Focus mode.
• People choosing to always stay in Focus or Unwind mode. We tackled this by adding time limits for example a 5 hour budget of Unwind mode each week and letting users deciding when to use it.

The OfficeMix mobile application prototype was designed to be as intermediary as possible between the two main mobile platforms, iOS and Android but were later modified to lean towards iOS more. In addition were the OfficeMix smartwatch application prototype and the OfficeMix's Microsoft Teams plugin prototype.

Colour‐coded modes

To visualise the matching results, the Dial incorporates a colour‐coded and vibration system through a portable object. Each mode is associated with a specific color, When individuals are successfully matched with someone in the same mode, the portable object lights up with the corresponding colour/vibration, providing a visual cue that a match has been made.

Time constraints

It is important to consider time constraints within this system. Users may have different availability or time windows for engaging in specific modes. For example, they may set the Dial to collaboration mode for certain hours of the day and switch to chilling mode during breaks. This ensures that individuals are matched with others who are available and receptive to the selected mode at the same time.

Iterations for v1.0

Here are the changes we made after taking into consideration feedback from user testing:

Changing the 3 Csto Unwind

Officially changed and transitioned the Casual, Chill or Coffee modes to Unwind mode.

Mobile Application

The user could now customise OfficeMix to allow priority notifications in each of the work modes. In addition we changed the colour for Collab mode from a maroon or pinkish colour to orange.

Desktop App

Added a the shortcut desktop app and a corresponding screen as soon as they turn the dial.

We held and sub‐divided User‐testing into three categories:

Executive

A company executive working in Hardware technology company mentioned that it may not be necessary to want to know everyone's working status. Furthermore, he was concerned that he would miss urgent emails when in Focus mode.

Employee

An employee working in Design, Marketing and Animation departments for a Design studio noted that the skill search would be extremely helpful, the matching feature would be great for leisure activities, thought upon its first use they might forget to use it and loved that the dial links all across devices.

Student

A student from UAL mentioned that they felt it was better for new employees and/or introverts and we needed more initiative to encourage people to use the product.

Conclusion

OfficeMix succeeded in bridging silos and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration within organisations. By enabling teams to identify synergies and navigate practical challenges, the tool improved overall productivity and stimulated innovation. However, continuous efforts to re‐inforce the collaborative culture and address technical concerns are crucial to sustaining the success of OfficeMix in the long term.