Design for user experience of control with flexible office environments - explorative user tests with prototypes
Journal article, 2023

The study addresses the prototyping, user testing, re-design, and re-testing of an office furniture concept following a research through design approach. The concept was intended to enable a positive user experience of control over sound stimuli and related distractions in flexible offices. The aims were: (i) to explore design opportunities in relation to experience of control; and (ii) to gain a deeper understaning of how to design for such positive experiences. The results show a limited impact on the experience of control over sound stimuli in the offices where the concept was tested, and a noticeable positive effect on control over privacy, visual distraction, and (to a lesser extent) work tasks. In this sense, the concept was meaningful for the users and opened up new opportunities for control over stimuli in flexible offices. The context, temporality of user experiences, and prototype fidelity were the keys to explaining the results.

research through design

office design

control

distraction

design research

flexible office

UX

sound

Author

Antonio Cobaleda Cordero

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design & Human Factors

Marianne Karlsson

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design & Human Factors

Maral Babapour Chafi

Institute of Stress Medicine

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics

2045-7804 (ISSN) 2045-7812 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 2 165-186

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Work Sciences

Design

Other Engineering and Technologies

Other Medical and Health Sciences

Areas of Advance

Health Engineering

DOI

10.1504/IJHFE.2023.130541

More information

Latest update

11/17/2023