Herman Miller
Professional, 2013-14
Note: Images have been blurred to preserve confidentiality.
Introduction: The Living Office, Herman Miller’s new office environment, strives to be more human. The Living Office "is a more natural and desirable workplace that fosters greater connection, creativity, productivity, and, ultimately, greater prosperity for all.”
The Challenge: What is comfort in the new workplace? Develop a more humanistic approach to Living Office furniture that takes into account different mental states and modes of work.
The Role: Independent researcher -- designed, executed, analyzed and presented workplace research studies for the Color, Materials, and Finish (CMF) Team. Collaborated with/advised by senior researchers, marketing teams, designers, and executives.
Methods of Discovery: Survey data and large sets of user-generated imagery were gathered, aggregated, sorted, and analyzed to gain insight into consumer preferences.
Insights: Visual patterns and language extracted from studies became a taxonomy of how people think about workplaces, showing that people had different environmental preferences for different modes of work.
Impact: Data influenced CMF choices for Living Office products, and prototypes for more need-driven online consumer experience.