Simple Ways To Improve Your Office Design (Plus Benefits)

Simple Ways To Improve Your Office Design (Plus Benefits)

Effective office design can positively impact a professional’s work environment and improve productivity. Implementing helpful design aspects when organizing a workspace can ensure that professionals work in an optimal environment. If you’re interested in designing an office space that allows you to remain productive and healthy, it may be helpful to learn about some tips for doing so. In this article, we discuss why simple office design is important and list 18 design ideas to help you organize an environment that works best for you.

Why is simple office design important?

Simple office design is important for professionals, as it helps create a productive and collaborative work environment. Office design ideas may include visual and logistic elements that contribute to the satisfaction and motivation of teams or departments. It’s often important for managers or other employees to employ unique design elements that suit the type of work environment they’re attempting to implement. When developing your office design, consider your peers and work processes to optimize your office space.

18 simple office design ideas

Here are 18 different design ideas that can optimize your workspace:

1. Displaying brand values

One method that can allow you to emphasize your company’s culture is to present your brand values as wall art or other printed decor around your office. Displaying your brand ideals can strengthen employee connections to each brand and improve collaboration. Incorporating company core values or mission statements into your office art can inspire you and your teammates to work toward achieving collective company goals.

2. Break rooms

Ensuring that your office has a designated area for breaks can foster healthy work habits among employees. Taking breaks is important in ensuring that you can conduct your work thoroughly by preventing fatigue or monotony. Break rooms also provide a space that can allow you to connect with colleagues, which can improve collaboration.

3. Cable management

You may possess technological equipment in your workplace, and if so, proper cable management minimizes the clutter in your workspace. Try to use wireless equipment wherever possible, including printers, scanners, keyboards, routers or speakers. For your wired devices, you can also use outlet adapters to plug your cables into one place, which prevents tangled or haphazard wires.

4. Color theory

Color theory is a common design aspect that can affect employees’ productivity, energy, and even hunger. Incorporating lighter colors into your workspace may create an illusion of a larger work area, which can make a smaller space seem open or larger. Experts also often associate blue, green, and yellow with productivity. Consider researching other color theory effects that you want to implement into your workplace.

5. Comfortable temperatures

An optimal temperature can make you and your peers feel more comfortable in your work environment. Avoiding extremely hot or cold temperatures within your workspace can help you avoid distractions that hinder your productivity. Consider asking your colleagues which temperature they prefer when setting the thermostat and having a fan or space heater for personal use.

6. Ergonomic furniture

Comfort is an important factor to consider regarding workplace productivity, and ergonomic furniture is a good way to reduce physical strain while working. Some common ergonomic work practices include ensuring that your computer monitor remains about an arm’s length away and have tables and chairs at proper heights that can be adjustable to develop proper posture.

7. Focus lighting

Different colors in the light spectrum can affect your eye strain and focus, so it’s important to consider the lighting you have and determine whether it may be beneficial to implement dimming or color-changing lights. Warmer or red lights produce a softer light that can be more comfortable for your eyes but also more relaxing, which may or may not reduce your focus. Cooler or blue lights can recreate the type of light you associate with natural daylight, which may make you feel more awake and focused.

8. Food common area

Ensuring that your office has established a common area for meals can be beneficial in increasing interaction and camaraderie between employees. Providing free or reduced-price food choices may also emphasize that a company values its employees. Organizations, where employees feel valued, can experience an increase in motivation and productivity.

9. Green clean

Clean workspaces are often easier to navigate and may increase an employee’s overall focus. It’s often important to employ cleaning services that dispose of waste, vacuum pollen, dust, or other allergens, and chemically clean floors. It may also be helpful to regularly check air filters and even provide air-purifying plants throughout an office environment. This promotes health and safety, which can also improve productivity and focus.

10. Hydration stations

A water cooler is a common space for peers to gather and remain hydrated. While focusing on work, it’s important to hydrate frequently, and if an office space implements several hydration stations, it becomes easier to remember to do so. It also provides another area in which you can take a break from your work and return more focused and energized.

11. Innovative spaces

To promote innovation in your workplace, it can be helpful to implement areas in which peers can generate ideas and collaborate. You can place collaborative drawing boards throughout your workspace to invite others to write new ideas or contribute to existing ones. These boards can also be a fun way for team members to communicate or express their creativity.

12. Individual style

Allowing employees to decorate their personal spaces with their own designs can create opportunities for team members to develop deeper connections with one another. Having personal items on a desk or wall can foster new conversations about those items and help peers familiarize themselves with one another. Showcasing personal items may also help you identify commonalities with others and promote collaboration.

13. Open concept design

An open-concept office design removes cubicles from office space to promote individual interaction and collaboration. Open concepts also provide more room to navigate through an office, which can be optimal for team members who want to move around frequently. Floor plans with an open concept often feel like a larger space, which reduces any feelings of confinement or restraint that one might have in a smaller work environment.

14. Windows

Resting your eyes and taking breaks from looking at a screen reduces eye strain and fatigue. Placing workspaces near or in view of windows can provide more opportunities for employees to look away from their screens. If there are minimal windows within your workspace and you can’t add more, consider wall art that displays outdoor scenes, which can replicate that effect.

15. Shared desks

Shared desks can maximize the amount of space in your workplace and also increase communication among your team. Having a shared desk can foster relationships with your peers, which can allow you to collaborate easily to solve problems and develop new ideas. Working together can improve your motivation and help you accomplish tasks more efficiently.

16. Snack bars

Providing snacks for your team can ensure that team members remain focused as they work. It also promotes a healthy working environment in which employees feel prioritized. Try to replenish your snack bar frequently so employees know they can depend on grabbing a snack if they need one.

17. Streamlined organization

The layout of your office can determine how well you streamline your work processes. If your team uses multiple stations or machines, placing them in a logical order may allow team members to advance from one task to another smoothly. When various teams work within the same space, you can also place certain technological equipment or machinery closer to the teams that use each device most frequently.

18. Workspace placement

It’s often helpful to place workplaces away from distracting areas, such as break rooms, restrooms, and other spaces with loud noises or many people. An effective workspace often has adequate room for you to move around if needed while still conducting your work. It’s also important to identify the location of air vents to avoid sitting directly next to one, which can make temperature changes more noticeable and distracting.