What to Look Out For When Designing an Office How we can add value to your office space

The Dos and Don’ts of Office Design

Are you looking into office design to optimise your workspace? “Design”, “designer”, and “custom-designed” have all become somewhat trendy buzzwords, indicative of exclusivity, as well as upmarket goods, services, and merchandise, which aren’t typically mass-produced or intended for the mass market sector.

This trend represents a complete 360⁰ change, which emerged after industries started mechanising and mass-producing products, which became the fashionable must-haves for shoppers, customers, and consumers. This was well before the advent of office design and space planning.

Vital Assets in a Vitally Important Office Environment

Because ever-increasing volumes of furniture and other goods were being produced, the need also increased to employ and accommodate additional people, for the purpose of attending to more extensive administrative workloads. The workplace and its personnel began to receive their rightful recognition as being vitally important to booming businesses, its people being the organisation’s most valuable assets.

 

Maximising Available Workspace

Supply, demand, and the high cost of office space has created the need to maximise the use of one’s available workspace, whilst ensuring that it functions smoothly and avoids overcrowding the space and staff members’ workstations but remains attractive and comfortably appointed.

Professional Office Design

Professional office design and effective space-planning services go a long way in ensuring that your employees will

enjoy coming to work in your organisation’s appealing, well-laid-out premises. A happy workforce is far more productive than are people in an uninspiring, unhealthy, overcrowded, and dysfunctional workspace.

Fortunately, Quantum Office Furniture’s role as a leading wholesale supplier of state-of-the-art workplace furniture for some 18 years, combined with our joint experience that exceeds 60 years, includes professional office design and space planning.

By utilising our streamlined integrated software, we’re able to design and lay out your workplace to its best advantage, thereby maximising your individual workspace. We utilise different floor plan designs, which we can customise further with ease, as and if required. These are schematically illustrated on our website – a great way for all to visualise some of our effective options.

 

Checklist

Here is a checklist we recommend you follow:

• Numbers and Capacity – how many people are you going to accommodate right now? What about in the future? Are the numbers expected to increase, reduce, or remain constant?
• Available Space – is it sufficient or inadequate?
• Floor Plan – is it to cater to an open-plan concept, cubicles, separate enclosed offices, individual or joint workstations or desking options, or flexible workspace options?
• Priority and Demand – which areas and tasks are most in demand and should thus be allocated priority? Keep in mind that quiet and private spaces also have a place in the office.
• Workflow – where are walkways required? How much foot traffic is expected and between which workstations should unencumbered movement be enhanced, so that collaboration is encouraged without disruption to others, since work should flow as seamlessly as possible?
• Company Culture – fun, youthful, and funky, or quietly calm and collected? Consider incorporating design elements that reflect the organisation’s core culture and brand.
• Fixtures – features which cannot be changed but must be taken into consideration, including elements like doors, emergency exits, windows, natural light and ventilation sources, or in-office roof supporting pillars.
• Compliance with safety standards and regulations
• Cost – the overall cost should be in line with the budget, so it’s wise to undertake the most pressing improvements first in order of priority.

 

 Read more about Prioritising Productive Office Furniture Layout here.

 

Additional Design Tips

Here are some additional tips you can follow:

• Incorporate plants and artworks. Plants link nature and the outdoors with interior spaces, whilst helping to reduce CO2 levels inside.
• Be mindful of the effect of colour on the environment and the workplace’s occupants. Consider incorporating your brand colours in your office décor designs, which offer additional branding opportunities.
• Large windows not only allow in a lot of natural light, but they also enhance the indoor/outdoor energy and aesthetic flow.
• Varying textures and materials create pleasing depth, subtle contrast, interest, and presence.
• Areas to take a coffee break, have lunch, or simply be relaxed and at peace are invaluable in keeping workplace worries at bay and managing stress and pressure.

Nowadays, and for quite some time, open-plan offices are the most popular. These spaces offer the most flexibility and furniture placement possibilities, which encourage workflow, constructive interaction, and a feeling of cohesion amongst colleagues. Such factors impact positively on performance and productivity, whilst allowing the professional office designer ample scope to be effective and creative.

Make the most of your workspace and you’ll be making the most of your personnel, performance, and productivity. Incorporate cutting-edge furniture and space-planning designs by Quantum Office Furniture, and you’ll be making the most of your opportunities for success. Contact us today.