Service design research about redesign sedentary office guided by new ergonomics theory

Abstract

Current office design is sedentary because it encourages users to work in one good posture as long as possible. Such sedentary office is lethal and inefficient. It needs redesign. To solve this problem, tendonitis experts came up with the new ergonomics theory. It encourages office workers to switch working postures periodically. This working status is defined as dynamic in the paper. More and more well-known furniture manufacturers sensed this dynamic trend and applied the new ergonomic theory to their product. However, few of their products achieved big success. In order to better apply the new ergonomics theory in office design, a synthesis of context interviews, survey, and observation shadowing was carried out. A triangulation method was used to analyze the research results to get reliable apparent truth. From the research, it was concluded that a successful new ergonomics office needed nicely designed multi-posture physical environment, proper posture-change stimulation system, and pleasant posture -change experience. This needs industrial design, interaction design, and user experience design to collaborate seamlessly, which actually is a typical service design process. So, only through service design, can a great new ergonomics office be created to encourage users leading a new life style. This paper offered a brand new direction for office design. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.