Modern office design strategies allow businesses to create dynamic and effective workspaces within their spatial and budgetary limitations. Indeed, modern office design is all about finding solutions to problems that have plagued businesses for years.
And you don’t have to be a multi-billion dollar corporation to improve the atmosphere of your work environment. With that in mind, make sure to check out our ultimate guide to modern office design. We’re certain you’ll find something that you can use to positively alter your office space today!
Principles of Modern Office Design
Innovations are certainly a large aspect of modern office design. Yet, there’s no point in introducing a new office design element that doesn’t boost employee morale, performance, or help your company increase revenue. Below, we’ve listed the six most important principles of modern office design. While there are a myriad of modern office design techniques, these are the ones all business owners should prioritize.
Natural Elements
One of the key principles of modern office design is actually quite ancient: letting in some sunlight! There are a few reasons why this is a smart move.
The first is that natural light illuminates a much wider color spectrum than regular light bulbs. This reduces eye-strain and can make your employees more alert, which not only makes them feel better, but boosts productivity and reduces errors.
What’s more, natural light is, of course, free. Considering that utility costs are only going to rise in the future, planning for more natural light can be a shrewd investment. With this being said, it’s important to have suitable wall coverings so that employees can decide when they want to let the sunshine in and when they don’t.
Versatile Fields
A prevailing trend in modern office design is flexibility. Professionals love workstations that can play multiple roles –– in large part because they themselves cover a wide range responsibilities. If you ask your employees to complete a diverse array of tasks, then it may be a wise play to prioritize versatility in your office design. You can achieve this by investing in tables and chairs that are easily movable, setting up semi-private work areas, and installing a number of tech-friendly outlets throughout your office.
Eco-Friendly Investments
What does an eco-friendly office look like? In truth, there is no set template for green office design. Rather, business owners across industries can incorporate eco-friendly interior elements within their larger theme. Still, making a few eco-friendly decisions could help a business improve its reputation, win points with employees, save money, and –– of course –– do some good for the environment at the same time.
Collaborative Layout
At one point, the open office design was the “hot option” for business owners who wanted to boost collaboration within the workspace. However, office design has evolved since that time and has become more nuanced. Now, there are multiple ways to encourage collaboration without knocking down all the walls in a workspace. Setting up conjoined desks, removing assigned seating, and creating spaces for smaller “squads” of employees to gather and work are all effective methods to improve group productivity.
Vibrant Colors
Some offices are truly eye-catching in the sense that they employ a bright, neon-tinted color palette. Obviously, this is one way to draw the eye and influence mood, but managers can often produce the same (or similar) effect by integrating compelling artwork into their workspace. In addition, natural light and plants are both cost-efficient measures to invigorate to a drab office atmosphere.
Profitable Organization
The last key principle of modern office design is simple to understand, but often takes some planning and investment to implement: getting organized.
Indeed, the days of frenetic, messy offices (think old-school newspaper publishers) are long gone. Today’s most efficient and profitable workplaces are a model of clarity and cleanliness. Yes, things can get chaotic. But it’s the kind of “organized chaos” that one sees in hospital emergency departments or air-traffic control towers.
From a design perspective, getting –– and staying –– organized typically involves optimizing traffic flows and deploying furniture and equipment that maximizes space utilization. Light, modular furniture in particular is often part of the plan, since it can be moved or re-purposed as required.
The Modern Workstation
It’s entirely possible for professionals to spend more time at their desk than in their own living room during the course of a regular work week. Still, the harsh truth is few modern workstations boast the amenities, tools, and tech that employees need to operate at their best. What’s more, a poor desk setup can have a major negative impact on mood and productivity. To combat some typical workstation woes, check out these four awesome ideas to upgrade your desk situation ASAP:
Maintain Order
It doesn’t cost any money to untangle a mess of wires running around your desk or to utilize some free space under your workstation for file storage. Individuals working in small office spaces can maximize their workstation’s capabilities simply by taking the time to get organized and reduce the clutter in or around their desks.
Invest in Ergonomics
Ergonomic furniture and fixtures are a godsend to modern employees. It’s unhealthy to sit for long periods of time (like eight hours in a row, for example) so innovations like sit-to-stand desks can do wonders for your staff’s mood and efficiency levels. Never underestimate the value of a solid piece of furniture!
Think Collaboratively
Some workstations function as single-person desks. However, more and more professionals share workstations and tackle projects together. As such, it’s often a good idea to invest in some features to help facilitate teamwork like a whiteboard, smart-board, projection screen, or multiple monitors. Plus, purchasing desks that can expand into larger tables is a great way to encourage creative collaboration among your ranks.
Promote Personalization
As noted above, modern professionals spend a lot of time working at their desk. With that in mind, it’s key for progressive business owners to give their team members the opportunity to personalize their workstations in meaningful ways. We’ve come a long way from the days of uniform rows of cubicles, so let your employees express themselves. You’ll be amazed at how a few little changes can alter an entire office atmosphere for the better.
Modern Office Ideas & Examples
One of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing is to see how other companies have handled modern renovation projects. You can learn a lot about your office –– and good office layout practice in general –– by studying some professional examples. If you’ve been struggling to come up with a few modern office design ideas for your company, give this gallery a look:
Univision
Stylish, sleek, but not over-the-top, Univision’s office strikes a balance between old-school professionalism and new-school media. Keep in mind that your office design can either work for or against you –– depending on how well it aligns with your values.
Compass
How your office looks like on the outside is just as important as the interior design. Remember, a well maintained facade can make a great impression for your company.
Solberg
Light and transparency are essential to creating an office atmosphere your employees will love. Introducing lots of natural light, then, is often a fantastic way to boost productivity and create an environment conducive to exciting work.
ALE Solutions
The best modern offices boast amenities that not only gel with the rest of the workspace, but also help team members feel at ease and cut down on stress. Break rooms and kitchen areas should let your staff unwind and enjoy themselves for a moment.
Modern Medical Office Design
Professionals in the medical field often face an uphill battle when designing their workspace. That’s because unlike other businesses that can focus solely on creating offices that maximize productivity, medical facilities need to take more factors into account. For one, medical offices need to accommodate any number of patients, as well as other visitors to the facility.
Additionally, medical facilities have to provide an intuitive layout and offer certain creature comforts that have become the norm in our modern society. And of course, good medical office design should boost employee engagement and productivity levels. In short, it takes a lot of planning, foresight, and experience to strike the right balance in a medical workspace renovation. To that end, here are three essential elements to effective modern medical office design:
Incorporating Nature
When most people think about a clinic, they’re probably more likely to picture cold, metallic decor and beige hallways lit by fluorescent bulbs than wooden interiors and plentiful sunlight. Yet, there are many reasons why those in the medical community would be well served to incorporate more natural elements into their facilities’ overall design. Not only will natural design choices like large windows and fish tanks ease visitor concerns, but they’ll also satiate your team members’ innate desire to embrace nature. In fact, simply purchasing a few plants for your office spaces can improve productivity and well-being among staff.
Privacy Choices
It’s no surprise that most people visiting a clinic value their privacy. After all, no one wants to share their medical issues with others, and they certainly don’t want to feel cramped in a waiting room. As such, many medical facilities are now designed using greater amounts of space and a good number also designate unique areas for “examination,” and “consultation.” By dividing their office in this way, medical professionals can offer their visitors greater privacy and allow team members to move from department to department as needed.
Efficiency
Clinics, like workplaces across industries, function better when designed with the aim of increasing efficiency. “Efficiency,” can mean a great many things, though. Obviously, energy-efficient solutions are climate-conscious choices that can also cut costs at the same time. In a larger sense, however, efficient office design should also strive to reduce any unnecessary rooms or spaces. In order to ensure a clinic is built with maximum efficiency, designers should collaborate with medical professionals when forming initial concepts. By working closely together, they can arrive at ideal solutions to design problems.
How to Design a Modern Dental Clinic
As we discussed in the previous section, modern medical facilities differ both from their predecessors and modern “corporate offices.” Dental offices in particular must be both welcoming and warm, while also maintaining an air of professionalism. However, before you start exploring furniture catalogs and looking at color samples, it’s important to take a step back and focus on four fundamental aspects that will help you create a modern, impressive, and profitable dental clinic:
Understand Your Core Goals
The first step to building a better dental facility is to determine your clinic’s goals and objectives. Do you want to improve the waiting area with respect to size, comfort, aesthetics –– or possibly all three? Or perhaps you want to improve lighting and airflow, which can bolster team morale and assist with recruitment and retention.
Regardless of your unique requirements, the advice here is to start by identifying your goals before jumping head-first into issues like color schemes, materials, styles, and so on. Even though that is a creative and fun process, your business goals should drive your design and renovation: not the other way around.
Focus on Space Utilization
Space utilization does not mean that you have to use every bit of available space for a functional purpose, such as storing files or housing equipment. On the contrary, the most successful modern dental clinics strategically and tactically avoid over-saturating the environment with “stuff,” since this can impede employee efficiency. Plus it can be an eyesore for patients!
Ultimately, it’s best to keep space utilization top-of-mind when thinking about and planning your modern dental clinic renovation. Both the space you use and the space you don’t use should be a deliberate decision, rather something that “just is that way” by default.
Rethink Your Waiting Room
Dentists need to realize that their patients likely have busy schedules and need to be able to work and keep in touch with contacts even while they’re in your waiting room. That’s why fast and reliable WiFi, extra appliance chargers, and numerous outlets are a must for any forward-thinking medical office.
Focus on Current and Future Patient Groups
Making design choices that reflect your current clientele –– or the type of customer you’d like to attract –– is a sound design practice for dentists to follow.
For example, if you’re aiming to boost your patient roster with young families, then shifting toward a more relaxed, fun look and feel may be the right concept to implement. Or, if you’re looking to onboard more executives in search of cosmetic dentistry solutions, then adopting a sharper, more sophisticated vibe may be the way to go.
Essentially, you want to look at your dental clinic through the eyes of your target patients. What do you want them to see, think, and feel? The answers will help you make better, smarter design decisions that are based on objective analysis, rather than subjective preference.
Conclusion:
In terms of interior design choices, modern business owners have an overwhelming amount of options at their disposal. One one hand, this is obviously a good thing. But it also raises a lot of questions and concerns about how to best create a modern workspace. Is an ideal office setup trendy or classic? High-tech or traditional? Creative or comfortable? The reality is, only you know which design style is best for your business because your company is unique. Indeed, perhaps the biggest mistake entrepreneurs can make in regard to interior design is accepting a boilerplate concept for their office space. Rather than settling for one of a number of cookie-cutter workspace layout plans, make sure to create an office that suits your unique needs and specifications. Contact the Key Interiors team today to see how we can help you complete the office renovation of your dreams! We’ll work with you every step of the way to create the perfect design for your workspace.