Back to the drawing board

In the weekends my work room is off limits. It’s not that I can’t step foot in it – it’s my own room, in my own house. It just doesn’t feel comfortable to be there outside ‘office hours’. Why is that?

The first year of the pandemic I worked in my girlfriend’s room or at the dinner table. While I’ve always had my own room in this house, it was filled to the brim with boxes and other unused stuff, since we moved here. More like a storage space than a room.

So a year ago, when I started a new job, I decided to clean it up and create a proper home office. That also meant I could finally use the oldschool heavy-duty drawing board I inherited from my late grandfather, who was an architect. Obviously this drawing table has an emotional meaning to me, but it’s also a pretty good desk (though I could only stand behind it for the first month, until I bought an extra high office chair). I also took out all my books again, which had been hidden away in boxes, and put them on shelves. I was excited about my room.

But despite these meaningful objects, a year later I have (unconsciously) come to associate my room with productivity and performance, rather than with feeling at ease or excitement.

I notice that whenever I enter my room outside working hours and I see my laptop lying there on the desk, I automatically feel slightly nervous. “So many to-dos waiting for me in that thing” my mind tells me.

Today I had the insight that it doesn’t have to be this way, after reading a (Dutch) article that argues that ‘a good home office should be as cosy as your living room.’

Up until now I hadn’t thought about it like that. Sure, I have nice things in my room, but the space is still centered around productivity and functionality. A place for my laptop, my notebooks and my pens. I forgot that the upside of a home office is that you can design the place anyway you want (if you have the luxury of a dedicated room for work, that is). It doesn’t have to be only functional.

This is also true for digital experiences. We are often completely focused on designing for usability and performance. We want to reduce steps for our user and make it easier to go through a flow, for example. But then we forget about the place itself. Designing digital experiences should also be about creating pleasurable places, not just functional flows. Where people can feel at ease and relaxed.

For starters, I should apply this principle to my own room. I want to change it from place where I am able to work to a place where I want to be. Where I can draw, build, relax and be creative. Whether it’s a weekday or the weekend.

While the basic layout is fine, it needs some changes. I guess it’s back to the drawing board.