Office designing and planning for knowledge workers

Liao, Yi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/26110 Copy

Description

Title

Office designing and planning for knowledge workers

Author(s)

Liao, Yi

Issue Date

2011-08-25T22:14:31Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Reeder, Kevin
• Gunji-Ballsrud, Jennifer
• Hemingway, Erik M.

Department of Study

Art & Design

Discipline

Art and Design

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• office
• knowledge work
• communication
• user behavior
• design guideline

Abstract

Traditional office design is largely concerned with human ergonomics to provide office users with the maximum comfort and efficiency. As office automation developed in the late 20th century, the major tasks in offices shifted from manual work to knowledge work, which required more concentration and communication than ever before. Responding to this trend, user behavior studies became more emphasized in the office design process – a successful office design should be a holistic system consisting of users, furniture, and space. In this paper, the history and trends of office design are investigated. Interviews with knowledge workers from various industries were conducted to uncover how they work in and with their work environment. Through discussions with the interviewees, office design guidelines are revised based on the knowledge worker behavior. Office designing and planning need to facilitate the information and knowledge flow in the workplace. Appropriate flexibility should be achieved so that the workers can work efficiently in either concentration mode or communication mode as they need. At the end of the research, an office desk design is presented to serve as an example of how a product can reflect and address the needs of current day workspaces.

Graduation Semester

2011-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26110

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2011 Yi Liao

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