Most Effective Modern Office Design Solutions
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Office design is incredibly important, as it hugely impacts your client’s perception of your business and its general productivity. Here, we will discuss some of the most effective design ideas that will help you create exactly what the modern office should achieve.
Create break-out spaces
Sure, your employees can spend their breaks wherever they want to and they can find ways to eat at their work desks without creating a mess, but one of the most important things that home office design has taught us is: don’t work where you unwind and vice-versa. The same applies to the regular office – your employees’ workstations are places where productivity and work-related stuff happens; turning them into multi-purpose areas will greatly hinder your team’s productivity.
Besides, break-out spaces aren’t merely rooms your employees can eat lunch in – they are areas away from the work desk, they can inspire creativity. These areas also encourage in-office spontaneity, which is immensely important.
Hide the wires
Clutter is your office’s worst enemy; it absolutely kills productivity and is a known motivation destroyer. Admittedly, though, a cluttered workspace isn’t a common sight – people know that their desks should be clean and that there should always be enough wiggle room in between workstations/cubicles/desks. However, there’s one thing that laptops, docking stations, other electronic devices and some personal items have in common – wires. Finding ways to hide the wires, but also keep them untangled and organized is relatively easy; with dedication, of course. Always keep in mind that even the most expensive conference table can look awful if wires aren’t neatly concealed and organized within and beneath the table.
Never go cheap with furniture
If you’re strapped for cash, you’re going to have to make a lot of sacrifices, no doubt about that. Nevertheless, office furniture is the last thing you should be saving up on. A typical employee spends the majority of a regular workday in their office chair, and if these are lacking in comfort, your business is going to start lacking in productivity. If you spend $200 more per office chair, you actually save thousands in the long run, as workers with low back pain and general discomfort are everything but productive. It goes the same for actual desks. We previously mentioned how important hiding and organizing all the wires is, and this is next to impossible without a proper set of office desks. A pricey one will offer a solution for the notorious ‘cable spaghetti’ problem underfoot.
Eliminate the noise
Noise pollution is not only an enormous distraction, but it can be detrimental to your psychological health, so properly insulating the office is of utmost importance. Doing this, unfortunately, is usually far from aesthetical, which leaves you with a tough choice of sacrificing the office Fengshui for noise isolation or vice-versa. A fantastic solution for linear acoustic panels lets you walk a fine line between your office’s outlook and its objective sound insulation needs.
Bring the light in
A regular office day usually occurs between hours of 9 AM and 5 PM, which means that using lighting fixtures is only legitimately warranted for short time periods during wintertime. Making the most out of the sunlight, however, isn't always easy. For example, if your office is on the dark side, you're going to have to opt for less traditional solutions than large windows (although these still go without saying). Installing skylights is one of the best solutions to tackle this problem.
If you absolutely have to use lighting fixtures in broad daylight, we suggest that you opt for LEDs, as these provide light that is as close to the sunlight as possible, plus they pay off in the long run, despite being more expensive than your regular bulbs.