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HAGAKURE

葉隠Bravery and cowardice are not things which can be conjectured in times of peace. They are in different categories.

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SYDE261 - W2011

Environmental Design at Work

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Relevant Readings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics

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Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. - this doesn’t mean just environmentally friendly design- really it means incorporating environmental factors into a design- generally speaking a design has to take place within an environment- light in a room, air quality, HVAC noise- you need to think about the environment your design is being used in...a step we engineers can forget about while focusing on making it work

[Wikipedia]

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Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

You all know what ergonomics is right???

[Wikipedia]

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The foundations of the science of ergonomics appear to have been laid within the context of the culture of Ancient Greece. A good deal of evidence indicates that Hellenic civilization in the 5th century BC used ergonomic principles in the design of their tools, jobs, and workplaces. One outstanding example of this can be found in the description Hippocrates gave of how a surgeon's workplace should be designed and how the tools he uses should be arranged (see Marmaras, Poulakakis and Papakostopoulos, 1999).[4] It is also true that archaeological records of the early Egyptians Dynasties made tools, household equipment, among others that illustrated ergonomic principles.

Ergonomics isn’t anything new...

- people have always been trying to make their workplaces better- ergonomics basically applies a scientific method to the process of making things better

[Wikipedia]

- applying a scientific method to things is what we engineers do!

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Outside of the discipline itself, the term 'ergonomics' is generally used to refer to physical ergonomics as it relates to the workplace (as in for example ergonomic chairs and keyboards). Ergonomics in the workplace has to do largely with the safety of employees, both long and short-term. Ergonomics can help reduce costs by improving safety. This would decrease the money paid out in workersʼ compensation. For example, over five million workers sustain overextension injuries per year. Through ergonomics, workplaces can be designed so that workers do not have to overextend themselves and the manufacturing industry could save billions in workersʼ compensation.

- proactive or reactive approaches are possible

[Wikipedia]

- we’re talking BIG money here!

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Kansei Engineering (Japanese: 感性工学 kansei kougaku, emotional / affective engineering) is a method for translating feelings and impressions into product parameters, invented in the 1970s by Professor Mitsuo Nagamachi (Dean of Hiroshima International University). Kansei Engineering can "measure" the feelings and shows the relationship to certain product properties. In consequence, products can be designed to bring forward the intended feeling.

Kansei is a japanese term where the syllable kan means sensitivity and sei means sensibility. It is used to express the quality of an object for producing pleasure through its use. Therefore, there are objects with much kansei, and others with little or no kansei at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_XsE_iN1ps

Mazda was a big Kansei follower:http://www.terremoto.net/kansei/

One by-product of the human factors field is:

[Wikipedia]

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Who here has worked in a workplace?

What are some aspects of the environment in your workplace you liked?

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What are some aspects of the environment in your workplace you didn’t like?

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Ron Westrum (1991, pp. 221–223):1. Technotonic: a technology is technotonic to the extent that it is pleasurable or reinforcing to the user

a. It gives the user a feeling of control or mastery over the environment.b. Its use reflects a high degree of skill.c. Its appearance evokes aesthetic pleasure.d. It evokes pleasant associations.

2. Technostressing: a technology is technostressing to the extent that it causes stress

a. It removes the feeling of control or mastery from the user.b. It demonstrates the user’s lack of skill and knowledge of the device.c. It is ugly or evokes bad sensations.d. It achieves disrepute through association.

Technotonic and Technostressing

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Technostressing

Technostress is the negative psychological link between people and the introduction of new technologies. Whereas ergonomics is the study of how humans react and physically fit with machines in their environment, technostress is, in many ways, the resistance of change that accompanies newly introduced machines to work, home, and leisure situations.

Things that create technostress are technostressing...

What has created technostress in your lives?

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[Wikipedia]

...another explanation of technostress:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5AVUrUoROo

Office Space

PC Load Letter

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Statusupdatoholism (yup, I’m a neologist (yup neologist is a real word))

Technoddiction - an unnatural urge or tendency to constantly interact with technology

Who here is addicted to checking the status of your cyber world?

Do you find this to be a problem? Have you tried anything to deal with your technoddiction?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMpXbNI74_U

@

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What did Coco see in the Intel workspace?

- grey on grey paint scheme

- cubicle wasteland

- parking lot style numbering (C10)

- control - marked picture spot for the Intel sign

- lack of individuality, hope, possibility, individuality

- Intel cafeteria hierarchy - the super nerds of the chess club!

- 2nd Graders in the cubicle - “I need you to get my boss and throw him out the window”

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The Corner Office

The Department Chair has SYDE’s corner office...

What connotation does the corner office have?

- office hierarchy- best office goes to the highest ranked person- the worst goes to the lowest, the co-op student

A corner office is an office that is located in the corner of a building. Corner offices are considered desirable because they have windows on two exterior walls, as opposed to a typical office with only one window or none at all. [Wikipedia]

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The Action Office!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Office

The Action Office, a precursor to the cubicle desk was invented by Robert Propst who worked for Herman Miller (Research) in Zeeland, Michigan.

The Action Office was designed with the intention of providing space to work, privacy, and an increase in productivity. It was certainly not designed to increase employee density in small areas of office space. It quickly became a successful product due to the rise in white-collar jobs, rise in office remodelling costs, and government changes in office furniture depreciation specifications. It continued to be developed by Propst and Herman Miller Inc. through the following decades, earning the title of Most Significant Design since 1960 from the Worldesign Congress in 1985. Later modifications to the Action Office included making more storage room available and allowing for collaborative workspace. One design, dubbed Resolve, using technology and 120 degree corners, was permanently added to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, two years after its creation in 1999. In 2000 Robert Propst died, but is known to have regretted to some extent what his idea had evolved into and become, calling it a contribution to "monolithic insanity." Herman Miller (Research) is still a major and acclaimed designer and producer of furniture.

In the 50’s we got tired of the traditional OFFICE...so here comes:

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http://www.iasc-culture.org/culture/CultureFall07.pdf

This lead to CubitopiaAt the end of the 1970s, the old regime of the American corporate office was under fire. The walls and doors that separated one employee from another had come to be seen as obstacles in the path of revolutionary change. It wasn’t long-haired radicals who led the charge, nor was it the blue-collared proletariat who felt bound by the old order. This was a revolution of white-collar professionals. Their intellectuals— architects, advertisers, and especially business writers—argued that individual offices were becoming a thing of the past, and none too soon. Oversized offices, offices with windows, corner offices—these structures of arrogance and petty resentment had for so long seemed permanent and inevitable. Now they had to come down. A new world was rising from this rubble, a world of openings: open lines of communication, “open door policies”—or no doors at all! A new age was dawning: the Age of the Cubicle.

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A cubicle, cubicle desk or office cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions that are usually 5–6 feet (1.5–1.8 m) tall.A cubicle's purpose is to isolate office workers from the sights and noises of an open workspace, the theory being that this allows workers more privacy and helps them to concentrate without distractions. Horizontal work surfaces are usually suspended from the partitions of cubicles, as is shelving, overhead storage, and other amenities.Cubicles are often seen as being symbolic of the human condition of working in a modern office setting due to their uniformity and blandness.

[Wikipedia]

- does isolation help you work?- does it make you more creative?- does it help you socialize?

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http://www.iasc-culture.org/culture/CultureFall07.pdfCubitopiaArchitecture publications of the 1970s described the new cubicled office as “cybernetic,” without walls to stop the “free flow of ideas.” If the pictures in cubicle advertisements were any indication of their promise, cubicles helped ideas flow quite freely indeed. Without computers, email, and the internet, employees in these ads are pictured in moments of frenzied, low-tech communication: pointing to each other across the room, handing papers over and around the burnt orange (“aesthetically pleasing and humanly satisfying”) partitions, all while talking on the phone and jotting down notes.

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So the cubicle had some good intentions...but what went wrong?

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Universal Plan Standardized design of workstation area that allows departments to move people rather than furnitureTeam Space Open workplace arrangement involving workstations with fewer, lower partitions to facilitate communication and collaboration.Shared Workspace Two or more employees sharing a single, assigned workspace either during the workday or on different shifts or schedules.Teleworking Employees work at home, filed offices or designated Teleworking Centers 1 to 5 days a week on either a formal or informal schedule.Satellite Office A full service office location used by full-time employees living nearby.Free Address Non-dedicated, unassigned workspace at an agency/department location available to the employee on a first-come, first served basis.HotelingNon-dedicated, unassigned workspace at an agency/department location reserved by the employee via a designated coordinator, on an as-needed basis.

http://sam.dgs.ca.gov/TOC/1300/1321/1321.15.htm

Alternative office space designs:

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Instead of open cubicles, the building is defined by clusters of private offices for teams of 10 to 12 workers. Apple’s planners tried to provide for individual team identities by creating numerous common areas planned and furnished by the teams themselves. In typical Apple-speak, the areas are called U.D.A.’s, or “user definable areas.” They can function as places for meeting, eating — or even, in the round-the-clock world of Silicon Valley, sleeping.

Alternative office space designs - Apple