Office Design 100 Years Ago and Now
The reason we have offices hasn’t changed in a hundred years, but the way we accomplish work there has. Offices, fundamentally, are a work-oriented space made for people to accomplish their tasks. But it wasn’t until 1911 that one individual, a man named Frederick Taylor, decided to streamline office work and compartmentalize tasks into discrete entities. Good for efficiency, bad for the people: repetitive tasks became the norm, and office design changed to discourage socialization. Taylor saw the office worker as lazy, developing the need for office controls and strong management surveillance.
Due to this change in attitude, in the early 1900’s office design started to move away from a social, flexible atmosphere into a rigid, compartmentalized structure, running more like an assembly line than a social space. Taylor designed offices where managers in private offices looked out over employees working in a completely open space. Utilitarian in nature, office art would have been regarded as unnecessary.
Over the decades following, office space gradually relaxed from this strict hierarchical system: in the 1950’s, an egalitarian system sprang up, with undivided workstations, making conversation easier and placing managers on the floor with their employees.
It wasn’t until the late ’60’s that the famous cubicle-system was born, when Herman Miller designed Action, popularly known as the cubicle. The 80’s were the peak of the cubicle craze, with the popularly-termed ‘cube farm’ creating the dispiriting soul-crushing image of monotony highlighted in pop culture with the popular cartoon Dilbert.
By the 90’s, companies were starting to innovate, using technology to create office design and layouts that hadn’t been possible 50 years ago. Corporate culture began to focus on the creative and social needs of the employee. Designers were hired to decorate, money was invested in buying art for offices, and an entirely new idea of the office was born.
Today, large technology corporations like Google and Facebook are a perfect example of how great office design can come together with the ideals of creating a creative, comfortable social space where employees are encouraged and supported. No trace of the dreaded cubicle is found. Google, in particular, sets a model that directly contradicts 1911 Taylor’s idea of the worker as a lazy cog in an assembly line of paper and filing cabinets, a worker that needed direct supervision from above at all times. At Google’s headquarters in California, people work together in a social office environment, designed to look like forests, ponds; filled with live potted plants, and provided with areas to relax and think alone. Employees have cafeterias resembling nice restaurants, as well as kitchens; social spaces have everything from arcade games to table soccer.
In a hundred years office design has changed immensely. While Frederick Taylor’s ideas of what an office should be were strict and discouraged creative thought, he has to be thanked for creating, essentially, the first idea of the modern office, with his ideas on streamlining work, giving each employee one particular task to do, and having managers overlooking employee’s work. Over the decades his ideas have morphed into the modern-day office: well-designed to foster creativity and encourage productivity, provided with perks to keep employees from burning out, and created with a social aspect in mind. Luckily, we live in the 21st century and will hopefully never have to endure Taylor’s attempts at turning the office into an assembly line.
About the Author: This guest post is from Endre Rex-Kiss, an online marketing, social media and web development enthusiast. He currently represents Acrylicize, a US based art consultancy agency. Follow his occasional guest blogging activities on Twitter (erexkiss).
Sources:
http://www.chilloutpoint.com/science_and_technology/google-office-versus-facebook-office.html
http://www.gamc.nsw.gov.au/workplace-guidelines/3_wpdirections/wpdirections_3_01.htm
http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/17-04/pl_design#
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Photo Credit: Toronto Public Library Special Collections
Criteria for an Effective Logo Design
Many entrepreneurs are inexperienced when it comes to getting logos designed. This is to be expected as it is not something that you would really need to know much about unless you are starting your own business.
If you are using a reputable designer to design your logo then to some extent you can sit back and relax, knowing that the future of your brand is in their capable hands. However, you can usually do so much better if you take an active interest in logo design before the design process begins. This way you will understand the importance of a business logo and you will be able to communicate clearly with your designer so they can understand exactly what your organization needs.
Below is a list of characteristics that are common in effective business logos. This will give you some ideas on what to ask for in the beginning and how to guide your designer as you proceed.
1. A Logo with a Difference
Obviously, you will want a logo that is unique as the whole point of a logo is to help people to identify your brand and to distinguish it from other players in the market. Great designers will seek inspiration from other logos but still come up with something that is totally original.
Depending on the industry that you are in there will be common images that many of your competitors have used. Dental logos often feature a smile, real estate agents go for rooftops and veterinarians go for cats, dogs or paw prints.
Should you avoid the clichéd images, even if they will do such a great job of giving you an identity that people in your market will immediately recognize? It’s hard to say really. You don’t want to be another copycat lining up to compete for the limited market share in your area. However, a truly great designer will be able to take a common image and make their version of it dramatically different from your competitors.
2. Keep it Simple
Remember that when it comes to logos, less is usually more. In other words the more a designer goes crazy adding colors, images and intricate designs to a logo the less effective it becomes and the more amateurish it looks.
If you look at the logos of some of the worlds top companies you will see that they are all very simple. Great designers exercise restraint and come up with designs that are uncluttered and professional looking. Many designers don’t know when to stop and end up producing logos with ‘too much going on’. You may be able to get away with a more visually stimulating logo if you are in certain creative industries but for most businesses ‘simplicity rules the day’.
Most great logos consist of only a few colors so you should start to worry if your designer comes out with something that is too colorful. A limited color choice will typically be more effective visually and it will be more convenient when it comes to printing. Remember that colors don’t always come across well in some formats such as a photocopied or faxed page.
White backgrounds are common so think twice before going with a logo that needs a dark background to enhance lightly colored design elements.
3. Practical Considerations
A great logo has to be practical and functional. Think of how your brand icon is going to be displayed and get something designed that will measure up to the task.
Your logo should look great in any size without losing its clarity and effectiveness. You will want small versions of it displayed on your business cards and you may need much larger versions of it displayed on vehicles or signage (or on a blimp at the Super Bowl). A great design is a scalable design.
Don’t forget about shape as well. If your logo will be predominantly displayed on vehicles or across the top of web pages then a longer rectangular shape might be best.
4. Relevancy and Appeal
It is great if a logo can go some way towards identifying the industry that a business is in. However, it shouldn’t define any aspect of a business too closely as this could place limitations on the direction of future growth. Something a little abstract can be good as it gives you a blank slate to build your brand upon.
One of the main purposes of a logo is to win the hearts and minds of people in a business’s target market. An effective design has to therefore be appealing such people. Different styles will appeal to different demographics. While some brands cover wide markets and must be appealing to everyone, some have to focus on sending out a message that resonates with certain age groups or niche markets.
Logo designers that are working under a decent budget will usually do a little market research. As the client you should have the best understanding of your market and should provide your designer with this information.
5. Built to Last
Ideally you will end up with a logo that will carry your business well into the foreseeable future. The last thing that you want to have to do is carry out a costly re-design of your logo at some point in the future. Great logos are classics that will last an organization for many decades. A slight touch up with minimal changes every few decades is the benchmark here so stay away from any design element that may end up being a short-term fad.
6. Loud and Clear
Your logo is conveying a message and therefore people have to be able to interpret that message. People should be able to read the text component of a logo clearly without any possibility of misinterpretation.
7. First and Lasting Impressions
A first class design will help an organization to make a great first impression on the viewer. A great design will be interesting and attractive and catch the eye of anyone who happens to turn their gaze in its direction. It should compel people to stop, think and take a deeper look.
Good logos are also able to grow on people over time and slowly work their way into the subconscious mind of the individual and even into the wider culture. Ideally, people will identify your business by your logo after only having seen it two or three times.
8. Good Design Sense
There are well established principles of good design that all decent designers will adhere to. Ideas like symmetry, balance and purpose come into play to create something that makes good sense when people look at it. Each element of a logo should compliment the other elements in a way that creates a certain synergy. Many designers believe that a logo is a work of art.
While most people have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, many still do so, even if they don’t always realize it. People assume that great companies will have great logos so don’t fail to miss this chance to impress them.
To compare some of the best options for getting a logo designed online check out http://www.logo-reviews.com
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Open Office Spaces: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Depending upon the location of your lookout perch on the nation’s workforce tree, you may or may not be aware of a rapidly growing trend in workspace design—the trend toward open office spaces. Popularized by an explosion in the European market, open offices are now catching on in the States, even though the precise definition of “open” is itself still very much open to interpretation. In some settings, the traditional “four walls and a door” office is being replaced by various forms of less compartmentalized partitioning where employees are still somewhat separate while working more closely together.
In the more extreme cases, every kind of wall is undergoing the same fate as the Berlin Wall—tumbling down completely—and the result is an environment where employees sit together with no barriers between them in a large central workspace. The common denominator here is the evolution from an isolated and insulated atmosphere to a more unlocked, uncovered, and unplugged one. But is this trend a good thing? This is the subject of a very spirited and ongoing debate.
Interestingly, both the proponents and detractors of open space offices tend to relate their arguments to a very similar, and nearly identical, set of metrics. Supporters often cite the positive effect of open space on employee morale, workforce productivity, environmental concerns, and individual worker performance. But detractors will point out how openness impacts these same criteria—only in a negative way. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons and maybe we can learn something:
Employee Morale
- Why open space is good: Even animals in the zoo don’t like being cooped up in cages, right? This is why you see many of them roaming around modern zoos in open-looking areas that somewhat resemble their natural habitats. Well, common sense tells us that if it works for animals it should work just as well for people. Open offices afford the ideal conditions for humans to roam around and in the process make friends, collaborate with co-workers, communicate more, and achieve a true sense of community within the office space. All these things are bound to add up to higher employee morale.
- Why open space is bad: Morale is great when you are sitting face to face on a daily basis with someone you like. But what if that person happens to be someone you dislike? And communication can be great—but some kinds are much better than others. Unfortunately open spacing gives us the bad along with the good. Being forced to listen to every co-worker’s phone calls and conversations, not to mention bad-mouthing and gossip, can kill morale instead of enhancing it. And another side effect of openness can be a higher risk of personal property theft. What could be more demoralizing than that?
Productivity/Bottom-line Profits
- Why open space is good: Studies have shown that open space offices are very cost-effective, saving businesses upwards of 20% in overhead costs. More people can be fit into workspaces and if the right kind of furniture is chosen, planners can maximize their usable space. Also, open spaces tend to more naturally accommodate modern work practices such as teleworking and office-sharing.
- Why open space is bad: A study by Australian scientists published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management concludes that open space offices are bad for employee health. The research found that in 90% of cases studied, “the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.” Germs are also more easily transmitted, leading to more employee sickness and a loss of production. Another negative risk to the company’s bottom line is the potential for theft of company secrets. In an open office space, the odds of someone seeing or hearing confidential or business-sensitive information increases considerably. And a leakage of proprietary information can not only destroy profits but can destroy entire companies too.
Workplace Environment
- Why open space is good: For many of the same reasons that consolidation into an open space plan yields corporate cost savings, it can also result in a greener workplace. Facilities with open offices are generally more eco-friendly due to greater efficiencies in heating and cooling.
- Why open space is bad: One type of pollution that usually rises in an open setting instead of falling is noise. There is more of it around and more employees are exposed to it. A 2002 study cited (in addition to lack of privacy and confidentiality) increased noise as a primary complaint of open offices listed by surveyed employees.
Individual Worker Performance
- Why open space is good: It’s not hard to see how an open office design can facilitate more teamwork and better communication. In support of this premise, a 1996 research study published in the Harvard Business Review revealed that companies that had modified their business processes by, among other things, migrating from private spaces to open environments realized performance increases averaging 440 percent.
- Why open space is bad: Lack of privacy is often cited as a downside of open space offices, but its impact can be more profound than simply a feeling of inconvenience. In her book Communication Theories in Action, Julia Wood explores the dynamics of communication from a performance standpoint, and offers the theory that there are two types of communication, both of which are needed to be effective: “front stage” (in front of an audience) and “back stage” (where one can relax and not have to worry about what others think). The danger of open offices is that employees may no longer have an individual office area to recuperate from the demands of continual front stage interactions.
So what do we conclude from all this? Well, the fact that there are undeniably positive aspects to open offices is surely a good start. The common-sense thinking is that if we can figure out how to design the open spaces in a way that keeps the good and eliminates (or at least cuts down) the bad lends hope to the thought that the trend is overall a good one and that the negatives can be looked upon as road bumps that need to be overcome. Variations of open office design are already being tried with positive results, some of them based on a very early study by Greg R. Oldham, whose research as far back as 1988 provided information on solutions to some of the problems presented by open office design. The trend towards open offices is not likely to go away anytime soon but there is definitely hope that it can be tweaked and managed in a way that will make open offices look increasingly good, less bad, and never ugly.
About the Author: Dean Stier is Vice President of National Business Furniture, one of America’s leading providers of office desks, office chairs and other office furniture to businesses, government agencies and other institutions.
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How to Find a Killer Strategy for Your Small Business Website in 3 Simple Steps
In this post you’re going to learn how to make your website more effective in three simple steps that you can implement right now.
Step 1) Choose a single goal for your website.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
- Credited to Laurence J. Peter
Your website may fill many shoes, and that’s okay. It can provide information to new visitors, it can help retain existing customers, and it can support e-commerce sales all at the same time.
The trouble with this is that more often than not, there’s no real goal for the website other than vague statements of wanting it to support the business. The purpose gets lost in all of the fancy features and great things that can come with a website.
It’s time to pick a single most important goal for your website. All decisions will be based around this goal, so it’s very important you think about it all the way through.
Why does your website exist? Here’s some sample answers to get your wheels moving:
- To bring in new local customers to my brick and mortar store.
- To provide support to existing customers in a convenient, 24/7 manner.
- To sell products nationwide through the power of e-commerce.
Step 2) Know your target audience.
If you want to sell something, it’s very important to know who you’re selling to.
For example: if you want to sell dog food, your target audience is dog owners. Your average dog owners will identify with a bond and connection they have with their dog and be interested in finding how they can give their pet the best they can without breaking the bank.
Think about the troubles that your audience encounters on a regular basis – go ahead and make a list. Here’s a few considerations for our dog owner example:
- Vet fees
- Scooping pet excrement
- Keeping pet at healthy weight
- Dog misbehaving
Now, make a list of all the positive things your audience encounters on a regular basis.
- Walks (in the park, at the beach, with other dog owners)
- Fulfillment and friendship in their dog
- Community with other dog owners
These examples are very short lists to give you an idea of what we’re going for here. Make these lists as big as you need to – these lists should be referenced every time you make a decision or write anything that is about or for your customers.
Usage Example: If you want to show how your product can help alleviate a common problem encountered by your audience, you have a list to refer to for that.
Usage Example: If you want to appeal to your audience’s likes and experiences, you have a list to refer for that.
Knowing how to communicated and reach your audience is one of the most important ways to develop a killer strategy for your website.
Step 3) Brainstorm a work flow that satisfies your audience’s needs and leads to your goal.
Now you have a clear goal for your site and you know how to appeal to your target audience. You’re already 95% there – by knowing why you’re making a decision and how to angle it for the people you’re selling to, the answers come fairly naturally from here on out.
Where does the audience start?
Hypothetically your audience could land on any page of your website. Where will you lead them? To your goal.
Perhaps you want customers to come to the brick and mortar store – the “Visit Us” page should be clear and prominent from every page on your website.
Perhaps you want to help answer any existing customer’s needs. A well designed FAQ section would do a great job at providing that. The FAQ should be easily accessible from every page of your website. You may even consider highlighting the most popular questions and answers throughout the site.
Think outside of the box! Put yourself in your audience’s shoes (by using the lists you made above) and think about what you might be looking for and where you’d expect to find it.
Take Action
Now it’s time to make things happen. If you haven’t followed these steps, you need to do so right now and make the appropriate changes.
Here’s to your effective website!
——
About the Author: Anne Dorko is a business web consultant helping business owners like you succeed online every day. Whether you need to create, shape or grow your website, Anne is there for you every step of the way explaining how to get it done in a way you can actually understand! For more tips and a free worksheet, be sure to sign up for the Web Tips newsletter.
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Don’t Create Your Business Website Without Reading These Five Tips
If you’ve got a small business, you need a website – that much is clear. But don’t go off hiring a designer until you check out Corey Perlman’s five website design tips to help your website not only look good, but make your business money.
If you leave your website’s look and feel strictly to the designers, be prepared to get a beautiful, sexy, artistic site that does everything but make you money.
Why? Because they know website design, but they do not know your business. The five tips below will help ensure that you not only have a website that looks professional, but a website that’s open and ready for business!
Five Design Tips for Your Business Website
#1 – Keep your important information above the fold
64.9% of people don’t scroll. And 77.3% of statistics are made up on the spot.
So forget the statistics, just remember that your phone number, physical address, “Buy Now” button all have a greater chance of being clicked on if you don’t require people to scroll down to click on them. Make sure all of your important information is eye level and consistent on every page throughout your site.
#2 – Include an Opt-in Form on your Website
By securing a person’s contact information prior to them leaving your Website, you’ve ensured that you can continue to communicate with this person down the road.
This is critical to your success via the Web. As you know, people are very protective of their information and will be hesitant to give it away. To increase your chances of having a successful opt-in box, offer something of real value so people feel good about giving you their name and email address.
Remind them that you will only email a periodic eNewsletter and that you will NEVER sell or give their email address to anyone else.
#3 – Link Clarity
Another rule of thumb: if the user doesn’t feel confident they know where the link they are about to click on is taking them, they won’t click on it. So take the guess work out of it and make your links abundantly clear. Contact Us. Yep, that’s pretty clear.
#4 – Color Pollution
Remember when your mom thought anything you brought home from art class was the most beautiful masterpiece in the world? Well, no offense, but I’m willing to bet it fell into the category of color pollution. Color pollution is simply more than three primary colors on a page. Any more than three and your brain slowly begins to turn to mush. This is crucial when it comes to your website because you want your user’s attention to stay focused on the content, not that odd shade of mauve.
#5 – Include Key Words in your homepage content
This is not your web designer’s job, so you can’t blame them for not doing it. Again, they don’t know your business and wouldn’t have the slightest clue what words would make the most sense to include on your homepage. Key Words are those words your users will type in search engines to find you…or your competitors. You want any word or phrase that they might type in to be scattered throughout your homepage as the search engines will give you credit for those words and that will increase your likelihood of a higher search engine ranking.
Author Bio:
Corey Perlman is the author of the #1 Amazon.com bestseller eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business. The book provides easy-to-do strategies and techniques to help you market your business on the Web. It covers topics such as social networking sites, Web site optimization, online articles and press releases, video marketing, and much more. To learn more about eBoot Camp or to purchase a copy, go to www.ebootcampbook.com.
Photo Credit: billaday
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