A "Smart Watch" for the Office: Workplace Design that Facilitates Flow
Take a moment to consider where you do your best thinking. When do you come up with your most creative ideas? How do you get “in the zone?” Chances are, it’s while taking a walk, in the shower, listening to music or doing something you enjoy. In other words, it’s probably not while sitting at your desk.
We know—and there’s a great deal of research to support—that creative thinking, ideation and even “flow state,” that elusive state of total involvement in a task, are best achieved when we’re able to reset or restore throughout the day. But while the workplace can be a great place for collaboration, socialization or mentorship, most offices are lacking when it comes to providing environments for individuals to recalibrate their minds to re-establish focus.
So, we asked ourselves: we’ve grown accustomed to technology that encourages us to move when we’re too physically sedentary—think Apple’s “Stand” feature. What if our workplaces could do the same when we’re mentally stuck?
An Experiment in Facilitating Flow State
The idea that offices can be better designed to facilitate flow forms the basis for our most recent research partnership with the University of Washington’s (UW) Applied Research Consortium. Guided by existing flow theory research from Csikszentmihalyi, Benson and Kotler, we partnered with UW to understand how to enable people to shift back to flow state throughout their day.
First, we conducted a behavioral mapping exercise to track existing employee behaviors, movements and actions related to flow, creativity, restoration and reset. Then, with the intent to encourage a sense of personal awareness (or “embodied presence”) using biophilic and mindfulness-based intervention, we designed and installed two sensory experiences meant to prompt mental shifts through spatial nudges.
Constructed of ethereal fabric panels and dynamic lighting, the temporary installations were positioned in different areas of NBBJ’s Seattle office—a high-traffic corridor that forced interaction, and a glass-cornered terminus where people could opt in. These experiences remained in place throughout a two-week observation period, during which the team did not reveal any information on the intent or principles behind the prototype. The experiment culminated in a survey, where respondents answered direct questions and provided more in-depth feedback about their experience.
So, What Did We Learn? Lessons in Forced Interaction
Ninety percent of those surveyed noted the corridor installation sparked a sense of well-being—a hallmark of flow—and 33% remarked that it made them curious, stimulated or engaged. Another 24% commented on the installation’s ability to slow them down and provoke a sense of calm. Not everyone experienced a positive reaction to the temporary installation, however. Ten percent of respondents noted they were mildly annoyed by it—this highlights a success of sorts, as “forcing” someone from their rote daily routine was a priority of the exercise. Another benefit of this "annoyance" is that getting out of one’s comfort zone is key to neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and learn new things.
For the corner installation, which required employees to seek it out, half of those surveyed had positive reactions to the experience created, commenting on the visual interest, the privacy offered, and the opportunity to have a nice moment away from their desk. Thirty-six percent remarked on the relaxing and peaceful nature of the elements. However, most respondents (76%) stated that it was too far out of their way, while 42% noted its feeling closed-off as a challenge.
All Roads Lead to Reset
What do these findings tell us about how to design offices that help us recognize when we need to reset? In either case, interacting with the installation throughout the day—by actively seeking it out, or simply passing through—drew employees out of their comfort zone, jump-starting creative thought processes and prompting a mental shift.
However, based on feedback received about both temporary installations, a restorative space must be easy to access, highly visible, and yet protected—bonus points if it encourages or forces interaction—to produce a change in behavior or focus. This finding prompts a reconsideration of both the location and appearance of amenities like meditation rooms in an office. Elements like nature and daylight, variety of spatial configurations, and opportunities to move also stimulate a reset. Finally, the incorporation of tactile and visual sensations—in this case, the texture of the fabric and the dynamic lighting—also helps spark flow state by creating a sense of fluidity between body and mind. As one survey respondent noted, “There's a joy in the tactile sensation when the fabrics rub against your head or touch your hands as you go by."
As we transition from a time when productivity is based on the number of tasks completed to a moment when it will be evaluated by the number of ideas generated or problems solved, incorporating design elements that encourage a mental and physical reset throughout the workday will be key to consistently finding the flow state so valuable to creative, ideas-based work.
