Disruption is ever present in our home lives thanks to virtual assistants and the ever-evolving Internet of Things. Yet our offices seem to have remained relatively static: desks, tables and chairs, filing cabinets and phones. However, change is coming to the these places where we spend an average of eight hours a day.
In a study that investigates how the design of offices could enhance productivity, the Mayo Clinic built a “Well Living Lab” to compare the productivity of employees in one environment compared to another. The results highlighted interesting impacts of certain environmental factors.
The ‘Well Living Lab” could be described as a simulator for the high-tech office, where productivity can be measured under manipulated conditions including different lights, temperatures, background noises (provided by ceiling speakers). Sometimes these background noises were your typical office sounds like someone typing on a keyboard, but some were more irksome. In one test case, a male voice repeated the phrase “patient archive” over and over.