「当你的手机功能越简单，你拥有的社交生活就越丰富」，以此洞察为锚点，海尼根携手美国潮流品牌 Bodega 于今年（2024）四月的米兰设计周中，发表了全新的品牌创意设计：一支主打「无聊」的掀盖式复古手机！

当手机不再搭载网路、高画质相机、社群媒体、手游等琳瑯满目的娱乐形式，而是回归千禧年间的基本功能，这项设计的背后目的，便是为了让使用者无聊到愿意放下手机，投入实体的社交生活，而以海尼根的品牌视角来看，也就是：出门和朋友们喝一杯。

面对社交中的惯性分心，你需要的是一支无聊的手机

根据海尼根对于英、美两国年轻世代的研究，发现有 90% 的人会在与亲友相聚时滑手机、超过 60% 的人会在聚会时使用社群媒体，而非专注于当下的实体互动，但与此同时，也有些人透露，为了避免这类的状况，他们会在出门聚会前把手机留在家里，或是开始考虑这么做。在这样的数据之下，海尼根提出了一个有趣的可能性：这一切的社交困境，会不会都是因为你的手机太「有趣」了？如果简化手机的功能，是否能让社交生活更精彩丰富？

对此，海尼根的全球负责人 Nabil Nasser 指出，「智慧型手机的存在让许多人在社交过程中惯性分心，因此，我们希望能透过无聊手机的设计，让人们重新回归真实的交流与接触」，于是，这款手机屏弃了网路与大多数的应用程式，只留下：基本通话与简讯功能、持久的电池续航力、耐摔的机身、仅 30 万画素的镜头，以及最经典不败的贪食蛇游戏。

揉合 Y2K 美学与品牌讯息的设计

然而，这款全球限量 5,000 支、只送不卖的无聊手机，虽致力将机体本身的功能极简化，在外观设计上却煞费苦心。

有鉴于年轻世代对于 Y2K 风格的着迷，无聊手机以「新复古美学」为设计概念，同时适度地融入品牌讯息——透明的机身外壳不只吸睛，还能让人一眼望见内部的海尼根色系电路板，而机身上点缀的雷射光泽贴纸、像素图板等复古元素，也同样置入了品牌图像，甚至还巧妙地将数字按键上的＊字号，替换成海尼根 Logo 中的星号标志，创造不少值得玩味的视觉亮点。

海尼根以产品设计作为和年轻受众沟通的语言，将消费者洞察转化为品牌行销的驱动力，可以想像，当人们的注意力不再被萤幕上的通知绑架，他们也将更享受与亲友畅谈、对饮的时刻——这款最无聊的手机，或许可能造就最有趣的生活。

此篇《DesignBIZ View》专栏发布于《设计新商业 DesignBIZ》 电子报 NO.029 期
✦ 点此订阅 → 掌握设计师、创意总监、创业家的第一手观察观点！

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最近，一位好友问我：「我们应该找装修承包商来设计办公室以节省成本吗？因为如果透过设计师，那不是会花更多钱吗？如果我只是分享一些 Instagram 上的照片，承包商就可以帮我们做吗？」直接找承包商当然可以省下一些钱，但你会希望在你的办公室看到什么？你希望透过办公室呈现怎样的愿景？你想向员工传达什么讯息？你期望把公司带向何方？

我们挑战过许多办公室设计，包含传产：永联物流开发－物流共和国台北园区办公室、服装：H&M 办公室，以及政府单位：新北市政府办公室－逗号实验室等备受赞誉的办公室专案，我们开始问自己，在办公室设计中我们追求的是什么？

重新定义工作场所

问题来了：办公室设计是否应该关注在成本上？透过雇用承包商模仿 Instagram 上的设计来节省开支，虽然看起来很吸引人，但真正的办公室设计并不仅仅是美观和费用。办公室设计不仅仅是创造一个办公空间，而是要打造一个能向客户和员工展示你公司精神和价值观的环境。办公室是企业文化和愿景的表述。

举个简单的例子：我的设计公司柏成设计，着重在讨论创意的可能性，集思广益创造新的可能。因此，我们很早就决定，会议空间和讨论角落在我们的公司文化中非常重要。尽管我们的团队只有 27 人，但我们还是特意设计了六个不同的讨论点，让大家可以快速聚集在一起提出新的想法，平均每 5.4 个人就可以享用讨论空间。

公司文化就是空间形象

从微软办公室（新北市和南港）这样的大型企业，到新北市政府办公室 – 逗号实验室这样的传统机构，我们承接的每一项办公室设计，都是为体现组织独特文化而量身定制的。无论预算多少，所期望的结果都应以公司目标为中心，即彰显身份和个性、如何协同工作、如何促进团队的健康和幸福，以及如何与客户沟通。

像永联的物流共和国台北园区这样的办公室是一个好案例，永联物流作为台湾首家，也是最大的机构型物流地产开发商，因为企业文化属于创业型，在设计空间时，我们应用堆叠货柜的结构概念，在开放空间中创造各种角落和工作空间，打破办公室的统一性，同时利用三种物流业常见的材料：混凝土、波纹钢板和木箱刨花板，展现公司重要的品牌特质。

办公室设计对绩效、观感与留任率的影响

良好的办公室设计还有助于提高员工留任率。我的一位好友经营铰链、钳子等工具进出口，这是个蛮传统且不太吸引人的行业，相对来说办公室设计也非常传统，充斥着工具箱、没有灯罩的日光灯、塞满文件乱糟糟的工作桌等等。他告诉我，在办公室重新设计和改造之前，很难招聘员工。曾有面试者抵达办公室，还没走到门口，就被工作环境吓到而离开了。

也因此，他知道势必采取一些行动，而重新设计办公室就是他的解决方案。他改善照明、安装升降桌、在室内种植了绿植等设施之后，现在员工留任率非常高，招聘也顺利许多。这显示了老板关心员工，且想给他们最好的环境。更重要的是，员工士气大幅提升，也越来越有自信，这样的转变说明了有效的办公室设计如何直接影响品牌形象和工作满意度。

品味在地风味的办公室设计

不管我们设计什么，有没有当地的思想是非常重要的。但在办公室设计上，这不容易做到，因为在地化设计常常会变成，将台北 101 的剪影放在办公室门口，代表你来到台湾，这常在国外的办事处看到。当我们在设计新北市办公室 – 逗号实验室时，我们将台湾传统的「办桌文化」融入办公室家具设计， 让大家可以一起在一张大桌工作，将本地文化的情感与工作环境连结在一起。

世界的办公室设计

今年 4 月的米兰设计周与米兰国际家具展览－Salone del Mobile Milano，吸引了所有知名家具制造商和品牌展示业界最优秀的作品，很可惜今年的展览相较于去年，办公室设计的创新明显减少，不过还是有两个案例想跟你们分享。

瑞士品牌 USM 持续创新经典的铬管和框架系统。他们这次将照明集中到铬管中，隐藏电线管路，不仅保持系统的贮物功能，也能同时照亮展示物品。这个作法也促进了友善植物设计，使植物能够在贮物系统中茁壮成长，这是对传统储物系统巧妙的新设计。

至于家庭办公室，我参观 Desalto 的展位。Desalto 提供了多种适应性的解决方案，可供小型住宅扩展或减少家具，以最大限度利用有限的空间。它的设计提醒了我们，无论生活空间有多小，在家工作仍然是一个可行的选项，这在疫情后尤其重要。

以人为本与健康取向的办公环境设计

最后，我想分享一些以「人」为中心的设计，以及让心灵健康的办公环境设计策略：

➊ 每个办公室都需要储物空间：与其将它们放置在墙边，不如在中央设置集中式储存空间，作为一个高 110 公分的中岛柜，鼓励同事间的互动和讨论。

➋ 设计周到的照明：减少长时间在强烈均一光线下工作的不适。如果从办公桌到洗手间的照明环境能变化，就可以让眼睛从 8 小时的持续人工灯光中获得休息。

➌ 绿色设计：最大程度地利用自然光和绿色植物，增加人与自然的联系。我建议与绿化顾问和景观美化公司合作，以确保植物的长期寿命，也要准备一笔维护植栽的预算。

办公室蓝图的前瞻

办公室设计的本质超越了节省成本，它体现了公司文化，提升了士气，并塑造观感。一个策略性、精心打造的空间不仅仅是一个工作场所，而是生产力、协作和企业身份的熔炉。透过设计思考，我们投资于公司的未来和走进门的每一个人的福祉，让我们的设计不仅为现在，更为我们的员工和客户留下长久而深远的印象。

此篇《DesignBIZ View》专栏发布于《设计新商业 DesignBIZ》 电子报 NO.029 期
✦ 点此订阅 → 掌握设计师、创意总监、创业家的第一手观察观点！

Think office design as part of your company culture, a communication tool.

Price or culture? Recently, a close friend asked me, “Should we look for a contractor to design our office to save costs? Because if I hire a designer, isn’t that going to cost more? What if I just share some office Instagram photos that I like as references, and the contractor can build it for us?” Sure, saving a few bucks here and there is possible, but what would you like to see in your office? What vision or spirit do you want your office to embody? What message do you want to send to your employees, or which direction or path would you like the company to take?

As a celebrated office design studio in Taiwan, with acclaimed projects like the Logistic Republic Office, a fashion office H&M Office Taiwan, and a government office New Taipei City Government Office – Comma Lab, we always ask ourselves, “What is it that we are after in an office design?” “What can we do to help the employee and its environment?” “How can design help a brand to give a sense of character and confidence?” and “What ‘global conversations’ can we add to our client’s office design, so that the office communicates with the world?”

Culture of the Workplace: A Vision Beyond the Price Tag

Should office design focus primarily on cost? While economizing by hiring contractors to mimic designs from Instagram might seem attractive, true office design transcends mere aesthetics and expenditure. Office design isn’t just about creating a space where people can work—that’s the bare minimum; it’s about crafting an environment that reflects the company’s ethos and values to both clients and employees. An office is a statement of a business’s culture and intention.

A quick example: my design studio culture is about discussing creative potentials and brainstorming new possibilities. Therefore, very early on, we decided that meeting spaces and discussion corners were important in our company culture. Even though we are only a team of 27, we have purposely designed six different meeting points where we can quickly come together and brainstorm for new ideas, averaging roughly 5.4 people per meeting space.

Cultural is the Spatial Identity

Every office design we undertake, from large corporations like Microsoft Office (New Taipei City and Nangang) to more traditional institutions such as the New Taipei Government Office – Comma Lab, is tailored to embody the unique culture of the organization. Regardless of the budget, the desired result should be centered around the establishment’s goals for bringing out identity and character, how they want to work together, how they contribute to the health and well-being of their teams, and how they want to communicate with their clients.

This company culture ultimately evolves into the brand identity of the space: how the space looks and feels, how workstations are placed, how one moves about the offices, whether the CEO sits with everyone in a non-hierarchical layout, or whether there’s a top-down seating environment where a manager overlooks every monitor screen from behind. An office such as the Logistic Republic is a good example to share, showing how brand identity can be showcased in the office arena. Logistic Republic (mother company Ally Logistic Properties) is now one of the main players of logistics property developers and centers in Taiwan, the culture of the business is very entrepreneurial, and the CEO’s thinking is very startup-like. What we thought most about when designing the space was whether we could create small corners here and there to give employees freedom to be creative, instead of an array of tables. We applied the concept of stacking shipping container-like structures to create various corners and workspaces within the open space and disrupt the uniformity of the office, all while showcasing the company’s essential brand characteristics using three familiar materials one would see in the logistics industry: rough concrete exposures, corrugated steel sheets, and wooden crate chipboards.

Design Impacts on Performance, Perception and Retention rates

Employee retention rates are positively impacted by well-designed offices. My good friend, who runs an import-export business involving toolsets like hinges and pillars—a typically traditional and not particularly enticing industry—faced a design that one could imagine to be very traditional, filled with toolkits, exposed fluorescent lighting, cluttered work desks covered with paper files, and old wooden desks that one can’t bring oneself to dispose of, adding to the clutter around the office environment. He revealed that hiring new staff was always a challenge, with unforgettable incidents where potential hires would arrive at the company front door, only to look around and then turn away, heading in the opposite direction.
Deciding to take action, a redesign of his office was the solution. He sought the best in office furniture that was ergonomic and height-adjustable, lighting that was healthy for the eyes, and biophilic walls throughout the office. The results were astonishing; not only was the office up to date with today’s standards of office language, but recruitment also became much easier, retention rates of existing employees were high, and perhaps most importantly, staff morale increased dramatically, reflecting their growing confidence. It showcased that the company’s values were being infused into everything they do, which was evident in their performances.

Have a Bite into Locality.

Whatever we design, I believe local identity is very important, especially in office design. This is not easy to accomplish, as most of the time, this ends up being a silhouette of Taipei 101, or whichever country they are from. Consider the New Taipei Government Office (Comma Lab) as an example. We thought about whether we could design a huge table that allows everyone to gather and work together, similar to infusing the essence of Taiwan’s traditional “banquet culture,” tying the emotional bond between work and local culture.

The World’s Approach to the Office

With this column set to publish in April, I can’t overlook discussing the Milan Furniture Fair – Salone del Mobile Milano. This event draws all the leading furniture manufacturers and brands to Milan, showcasing the industry’s finest. Unfortunately, this year’s fair saw a noticeable decline in innovations in office design compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to visit the exhibit of USM, a Swiss brand that continues to innovate its classic rod and joint system. They’ve now integrated lighting into the rods, concealing the electronics to maintain the system’s shelving functionality while also illuminating display items. This addition also facilitates a plant-friendly design, enabling plants to thrive within the shelving system—a clever redesign of traditional storage solutions.

As for home offices, I visited Desalto’s booth, which was particularly relevant in today’s world affected by COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. It reminded us that working from home remains a viable option, regardless of living space constraints. Desalto offers numerous adaptable solutions for small residences, allowing for the expansion or reduction of home furnishings to maximize the utility of limited spaces.

A Human-Centric Design & Wellness Approach

Here is how I go about developing a practical methodology for all office spaces, using a human-centered approach & wellness thinking, and I’d like to share my approaches with you:

➊ Every office needs storage. Instead of putting them against the wall, centralized storage in the middle of the floor plate acts as a mid-island table at 110cm tall, encouraging interactions with colleagues and peer-to-peer discussions.

➋ Thoughtful lighting: Reduce the discomfort of working long hours under strong uniform light. If the lighting environment can change between your pathway from desk to toilet, that in turn already allows the eyes to rest from the 8 hours of constant artificial light on your table.

➌ Biophilic design: Maximizing natural light and greenery taps into the innate human connection with the natural world and boosts well-being and employee satisfaction. This is not easily done, and I suggest working with a green consultant and plant management company to ensure the longevity of the plants, be ready to have a healthy maintance budget too.

The Office Blueprint Forward

In wrapping up, the essence of office design transcends cost-saving; it embodies a company’s culture, boosts morale, and shapes perceptions. A strategic, well-crafted space is not just a place of work but a crucible of productivity, collaboration, and corporate identity. By investing in thoughtful design, we invest in our company’s future and in the well-being of everyone who walks through its doors. Let’s design not just for the now, but for the lasting impression our spaces will imprint on employees and clients alike.