November 24, 2017
White Paper: intuitive design and the changing face of workplace interactions
In his famous 1988 book The Design of Everyday Things, the cognitive scientist Donald Norman suggests that the way we interact with objects and our surroundings is determined almost entirely by their design. People cannot be the primary reason things succeed or fail, because they are constant, while the design of the object itself is the variable. People can expect to learn how to use things better, but without an underlying people-centric and intuitive approach to design, the design will fail to some degree or other. He concludes that the designer should focus their attention on the interaction between people and the design of objects and surroundings. This principle becomes more relevant with each passing day, as the number of interactions we have with designed objects increases. This is most obvious with regard to our interactions with technology, but it is also apparent across our entire lives.
November 9, 2017
Review: ushering in a new era for the coworking phenomenon 0
by Paul Carder • Comment, Coworking, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design
Ramon Suarez has produced a very practical book, based on his own experience as one of the pioneers of coworking. And let’s be clear – it is coworking (not “co-working”; there is no hyphen), as Suarez explains, “a coworker (a member of a coworking space) is not the same as a co-worker (somebody who happens to work for the same company or in your same office)”. On his business card, Suarez describes his role as “Serendipity Accelerator”- you will understand that if you read the book. Suarez differentiates coworking from its many (and mostly false) aliases. Shared offices may be collaborative, but do not provide the network of people found in a good coworking space. Networked offices, where more than one company shares space and may collaborate, “come close” to coworking. Hacker & Maker spaces, Accelerators, Incubators and Cafes are similarly differentiated.
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