Become a Design Detective

At my work I started to look around to really notice the area in which I worked in. It’s basically an office space set up with lots of cubicles and some conference rooms. The cubicles are set up in a way that you are not facing anyone, almost like you are facing your own wall. The person that had a cubicle next to you or behind you isn’t even visible from the corner of your eye. However, you can hear everything from the other departments that were about 10 feet away. The colors are very dull. The floors are gray, the cubicles and desks are cream, and every computer on someone’s desk is black. The conference room don’t even look like separate rooms, because they were extended from the space, instead of placed inside the space. The doors are large and a dark wood color.

I think that the environment itself is very work-oriented. However, I don’t think it does anything to motivate anyone to work 8-10 hour days. I believe that it is designed that way in order to not create distractions, and also in order to fit as many employees as they can in the space. It definitely doesn’t create distractions, except for what you might hear. If the person that designed the room didn’t think about the sounds, then they were not that great of designers. As soon as you here people making jokes or talking about unrelated things, you are completely distracted. Then there is nothing around the room to really motivate yourself to continue to work hard. I think this is why when I go in, I really don’t enjoy my work.