Hol Bord
Høl Børd is a modular work space designed to address the millions of people who were required to work from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Work from home
Since Covid-19 has become the new normal, record numbers of people are filing for unemployment, and those that can keep their jobs are either working from home, or are on the job site. This has created a massive wave of millions of people now working from home without all the resources they may need to be a productive employee.
The Atlantic The Coronavirus Is Creating a Huge, Stressful Experiment in Working From Home.
Employees are pushing companies to break down the societal structures of the traditional work week by asking for the flexibility to work away from the office.
LinkedIn Lead Survey
A Recent LinkedIn study was conducted of 2,000 working professionals and 1,000 hiring managers
57% Want to work from home three times a week.
82% Are looking to work from home at least once a week.
Survey Research
To start the qualitative research process, I set up a survey that I posted on Facebook to get some more insight to who was working from home, and the struggles that they might be having. This opened my eyes to the reality that most people enjoy aspects of working from home, but everyone struggles with their own issues that arose from their specific WFH situation. Though, certain patterns start to emerge of general problems that most everyone was having.
“the cords around my desk make the whole system look “unprofessional” (it’s a hot mess)”
“I get distracted easily by my roommates. I also want to lay in bed because it’s nearby. I have trouble staying focused.”
“Can’t leave once you’re done, fewer computer screens, interruptions from door knockers, Can be isolating”
Anna Davis 25 years old Roommates: Yes Mechanical Engineer Boulder, CO
WFH Experience: Previous to Coronavirus, I never worked from home because the few times I tried, I hated it and could never get any real work done.
Anecdotal Research
A crucial thing Anna has observed is that her work days aren’t following the same time schedules that the normal day in the office followed. Her hours have become less structured, and she often finds herself completing tasks at odd hours in the night. Because her slack notifications are always going off, Anna has a hard time cutting herself off from answering that last request.
Solutions:
Dan Grove 25 years old Roommates: Yes Industrial Designer Boulder, CO
WFH Experience: Would only do personal work from home. All professional work was completed at the office. But I am open to the idea of including wfh days into my future work structure.
Anecdotal Research
Previously to Covid-19 Dan had been working from home, but only within the bounds of his personal projects. Now as a professional designer working from home, Dan has found many issues that didn’t exist in the office. Because of all the projects Dan is on, he someyimes lacks the organization to keep all of his ideas in order. Because Dan shares a work space with his roommates, he is looking for a more permanent solution that could stay in his room away from his roommates.
Solutions:
Design Goals
Inspiration
Concept 1
The ideas behind concept 1 come from combining a Murphy desk with a wire frame system that supports shelves and other accessories. This concept would allow for space conscience designs and customizable setups.
Concept 2
Concept two is derived from the idea of creating wall systems to divide up space into more manageable sizes to stay focused. Combining that with a peg board would add a high level of customization.
Concept 3
Similarly to the previous concept, this idea includes a light system to allow for work hours that extend into the night. A problem occurring from the ambiguity with work and leisure hours.
All Concepts
Final Concept
The final direction of this project is a set of modular peg boards designed to support shelves, lights, felt panels, and acrylic dry erase boards. This set is designed to be highly adaptable to each individual users needs.
