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Today’s Home Office - an Answer to the Needs of the Contemporary Home Worker

Johansson, Caroline (2017) In Diploma work IDEM05 20171
Industrial Design
Abstract
Today, an increasing number of people work from home; people value a
relaxed and individual work style where flexibility and mobility are of greatimportance. A home office generates several new requirements of a workplace as conflicts often occur between aesthetical and functional qualities. Psychological factors such as discipline or relaxation are also difficult tohandle when the boundaries between work and spare time are blurred.

Qualitative investigations, consisting of ethnographic studies in a carefully selected test group, are made to gain in-depth knowledge about working from home. When these findings are processed common user patterns
and behaviours in relation to the workplace are discovered. Further, the
priorities and... (More)
Today, an increasing number of people work from home; people value a
relaxed and individual work style where flexibility and mobility are of greatimportance. A home office generates several new requirements of a workplace as conflicts often occur between aesthetical and functional qualities. Psychological factors such as discipline or relaxation are also difficult tohandle when the boundaries between work and spare time are blurred.

Qualitative investigations, consisting of ethnographic studies in a carefully selected test group, are made to gain in-depth knowledge about working from home. When these findings are processed common user patterns
and behaviours in relation to the workplace are discovered. Further, the
priorities and needs that a home office brings are detected and the entire
research analysis culminates into a clear project definition and a direction to proceed.

The challenge is to design a desk for a workplace situated in a shared
room in home environment where the user is working regularly. The concept
should both be based on the characteristic user patterns and needs
that occur in home offices today, as well as contemporary living routines,
trends and values.

The product development phase explores how the set up requirements
can be met in a physical product and tests the concepts’ potential. It ends
up in a final prototype of a desk where the content temporarily can be
partly hidden. The desk is designed to encourage an organised behaviour
and to offer many opportunities for structure and individual arrangements.
Moreover, it separates and defines the two states of work and free time. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Johansson, Caroline
supervisor
organization
course
IDEM05 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
publication/series
Diploma work
report number
ISRN: LUT-DVIDE/ EX--16/50349—SE
language
English
id
8900014
date added to LUP
2017-01-18 15:25:54
date last changed
2017-01-18 15:25:54
@misc{8900014,
  abstract     = {{Today, an increasing number of people work from home; people value a
relaxed and individual work style where flexibility and mobility are of greatimportance. A home office generates several new requirements of a workplace as conflicts often occur between aesthetical and functional qualities. Psychological factors such as discipline or relaxation are also difficult tohandle when the boundaries between work and spare time are blurred.

Qualitative investigations, consisting of ethnographic studies in a carefully selected test group, are made to gain in-depth knowledge about working from home. When these findings are processed common user patterns
and behaviours in relation to the workplace are discovered. Further, the
priorities and needs that a home office brings are detected and the entire
research analysis culminates into a clear project definition and a direction to proceed.

The challenge is to design a desk for a workplace situated in a shared
room in home environment where the user is working regularly. The concept
should both be based on the characteristic user patterns and needs
that occur in home offices today, as well as contemporary living routines,
trends and values.

The product development phase explores how the set up requirements
can be met in a physical product and tests the concepts’ potential. It ends
up in a final prototype of a desk where the content temporarily can be
partly hidden. The desk is designed to encourage an organised behaviour
and to offer many opportunities for structure and individual arrangements.
Moreover, it separates and defines the two states of work and free time.}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Caroline}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{Diploma work}},
  title        = {{Today’s Home Office - an Answer to the Needs of the Contemporary Home Worker}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}