Are Open Offices Killing Productivity?

Business leaders have always sought ways to boost the productivity of their employees. In the 20th century, the open office was considered to be the smartest design to boost the productivity of desk-bound workers. In 1906, the opening of Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building was considered to be the first modern office, embracing an open office plan for the first time. The open-office concept continued throughout the years, but it was really popularized in the 2000s by tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook.In 2012, Mark Zuckerberg hired famed architect Frank Gehry to design Facebook's new headquarters, which would ultimately be "the largest open floor plan in the world." The campus is actually a single room stretching 10 acres.These layouts were praised for their ability to encourage productivity, collaboration, and creativity. Architects and business leaders believe that open design focuses on mobility, empowers individual boundaries and encourages chance encounters. But, so employees who have to work in these spaces share the same sentiment?

Less Focus, More Distraction

In 2015, The Washington Post published an article that sated this design trend “is destroying the workplace” at places like Google because it’s too “oppressive.” In 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple's open-office design was producing to be too noisy and distracting for programmers.A recent study by students at Harvard also noted that open designs are effectively hindering face-to-face communication, rather than building those "chance encounters" that Facebook had hoped. Rather than prompting collaboration, open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to socially withdraw from officemates, and interact instead over email and instant messaging, particularly through services such as Slack.

A Closer Look at Office Interaction

While open offices remain the trends, more studies around office interactions are showing that these spaces tend to yield employees who are more un-collaborative and unfriendly. Moreover, a study in 2016 by the Auckland University of Technology found that people who work from home or share a space with just one or two others enjoy better relationships with colleagues.Additionally, some argue that openness creates a sense of transparency, and therefore motivates people to work more because others can see what they're doing. Columbia professor and productivity expert Cal Newport suggests that this simply fuels busyness as a proxy for productivity and that it fails to foster quality work in favor of the perception of working more.

Alternatives to Openness

There are alternatives to designing a new workspace that isn't reliant on open layouts. Hub and Spoke is just one approach that's a hybrid of an open office and a closed office. While there are central spaces and hallways that are open, there are still individual offices. MIT’s Building 20 is an excellent example of Hub and Spoke.Ultimately, businesses need to design spaces that are more likely to encourage great work. One thing that should be avoided at all costs is the notion that a space that's swanky or impressive, offering a football-field of openness, is going to be the sliver bullet that leads to the next great idea. Chances are, according to research, it probably won't.

Microsoft Unveils Holographic Computer that Puts Google Glass to Shame

Google recently announced that it would stop selling one of its most infamous products--Glass. The often ridiculed smart glasses provided users with innovative technology, such as the ability to snap pictures by blinking or send emails using voice commands. For now, Google Glass may be regarded as a failure. However, Glass is arguably ahead of its time and may go down in history as a forebearer to some amazing personal technology.

One such successor to Google Glass might come from another large tech giant far from Silicon Valley. Microsoft just announced an even more powerful piece of headgear that promises to seamlessly blend digital and physical worlds together.Microsoft has been secretly working on its own augmented reality technology for years. While projects like RoomAlive have shown that the company is interested in experimenting with augmented reality, its newly announced HoloLens hints that the company is positioning itself to dominate the next great computing experience.

By incorporating holograms, Microsoft believes it can truly blend your digital life with your physical life in ways that haven’t yet been achieved. Demos just released by the software giant show a visor that allows users to touch, see, and manipulate images and data in the air without the need for keyboards, mice, or other hardware.

What’s interesting is that Microsoft seems to have learned from Google Glass’ mistakes. One of the biggest criticisms of Glass is that the technology made bystanders feel uncomfortable. People were always suspicious of what Glass users could be recording in public spaces. This problem was so bad that Google even had to outline proper social etiquette for Glass "Explorers," indicating just how troubling this technology was to society at large.For its HoloLens demos, Microsoft took a different approach, showing how the technology can be used in the home or the office. Users aren’t seen outside or in public. In fact, the headset itself is unapologetically large; it’s not trying to be a computer masquerading as a cool fashion accessory.

Unlike Google Glass, Microsoft’s HoloLens appears to be more conceptual at this point. It’s not clear on when it will be available or how much it will cost. But when it does get into the hands of consumers, Microsoft might be able to succeed where Google has failed.Take a look and the these incredible demos and get ready for "holograms" to be the next big buzzword in tech.

What Would Google Look Like with a Material Design Makeover?

Google’s gorgeous new Material Design has received a warm reception. The design language marks a new direction for the search giant’s products, giving the new Android 5.0 Lollipop OS in particular a more intuitive and beautiful interface.Material Design is largely composed of flat shapes and colors, but utilizes layers and animations that lend depth. According to Google’s design team, Material is “grounded in tactile reality, inspired by the study of paper and ink.” By basing it on the physical world, surfaces appear to be more tactile. User interface elements offer the illusion of height and dimensionality. For now, Material Design has been reserved for Android and Google’s own mobile apps. But Google is also encouraging app developers to embrace Material Design for their own creations. The initiative not only resulted in the most visually appealing version of Android to date, but it has also provided a more cohesive look to Google’s mobile apps. Already, we’ve seen Material Design adopted by a wide range of Google’s core apps, including Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube, to name a few.However, Material Design has yet to take over all Google properties, namely desktop properties like Google’s core end-user product, the search engine at Google.com. It’s this glaring absence that led graphic designer Aurélien Salomon to ponder what the Google search engine would look like if it too received the Material Design makeover, and his vision is stunningly beautiful. Utilizing the Material Design principles outlined by Google and its designers, Salomon created a conceptual version of the popular search portal that includes bright colors and subtle shadows for a more simplified, albeit more modern look.Similar to Google’s latest batch of apps and mobile products, there’s less negative space. Gone is the cold sparseness we’ve come to expect when performing a search. In its place are bright, inviting colors, subtle animations, and the same amount of links and results on each page. In light of Material Design rolling out to Android Lollipop, Android Wear, Google Glass, and a host of apps, Google’s search engine is unquestionably beginning to look dated. If Google.com underwent a Material Design redesign like the one Salomon envisioned, it would undoubtedly change the way we see Google.In addition to making the popular portal more modern and visually interesting, a Material Design update would finally provide a common design language. It would unify Google products and standardize its design in a way that hasn’t been achieved to this point. But with millions replying on the search engine daily, it’s understandable that any updates to its core product will be gradual and carefully executed. Nevertheless, we hope that Google is taking note of Salomon’s creation because it certainly would make for a more compelling experience.

Google Debuts New UI Design Language for Android

Last week, Google's annual I/O developer conference gave developers and the media a chance to see where the future of Android is heading. Among new features bundled into Android L, the code name for the next generation OS, there will be a new design language called “Material Design” aimed at providing a more consistent user experience across devices.All of Google’s apps, such as Gmail and its Calendar app, will be redesigned to adhere to the principles of Material Design. However, this new design language is more than a visual refresh. It also brings about new animations and new ways for users to interact with content. Along with revamped typography and more color, Google’s aiming to make its apps even more consistent than they are today, lending a better overall user experience."Unlike real paper, our digital material can expand and reform intelligently. Material has physical surfaces and edges. Seams and shadows provide meaning about what you can touch," said Matias Durate, Google's director of Android user experience.Google also launched a new Design website to provide developers with all the guidelines needed to build apps that follow the Material Design principles. While Android will continue to employ elements of a flat design, the UI will also have incredible depth, thanks to use of shadows. Developers can even assign an elevation value to areas within their apps, letting Google's framework automatically generate virtual light sources. Nuances like these will give Material Design a greater sensation of depth and visually indicate where user interactions can take place.At the core of this new UI is the need to bring a seamless experience across devices. Different form factors has created a significant challenge not only Google, but also for Microsoft and Apple. With Material Design, Google has incorporated all of its apps and even Search, and the company is hoping that it cracked the code that brings mobile and desktop platforms closer together than ever before.Google’s new APIs are now available, so developers can begin making apps that take advantage of this new design language. For non-developers, you can take a closer look at the future of Android below.[themedy_media type="youtube" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TXgCzxEnw"]