A dedicated office is now an essential component of many of our homes, but that doesn’t mean you have to make it look like the one you used to commute to. For design inspiration, we spoke with a few people at the forefront of home workplace R&D. See their advice below.

Ramprakash Ravichandran

The Google interaction designer working to humanize connectivity

For some, a glitchy video meeting is a call gone wrong. For Ramprakash Ravichandran, a senior interaction designer at Google, it’s a call to action.

Ravichandran and his team at the company's Next Billion Users project are researching ways to make the Internet more accessible, reliable, and affordable to millions across the globe. It’s an issue that hits close to home, too, as the pandemic and a shift to remote learning have shed light on America’s stark digital divide.

As he wrote in a recent essay, “Connect, No Matter the Speed,” Ravichandran says developers in the future should prioritize user experience, regardless of connectivity. “We’re constantly asking: How do we design products that work well off-line? How do we provide value to users even if they can’t afford the fastest Internet plan?” he says.

The solution is putting empathy first. Even when a page crashes or a session times out, Ravichandran argues, it’s essential that developers create an off-line experience that both informs and delights. Instead of an infinitely spinning ball? Implement a progressive loading bar. In lieu of half-loaded images? Try a placeholder. Slow loading time? Serve the user information about how the app works in the meantime.

Think of it as a slow Internet movement: building a user experience for the assumption that something will go wrong, fostering empowerment rather than frustration.

Magnus Wästberg

The bright mind behind human-centered lighting

One thing most workers don’t miss about the office? Oppressive overhead fluorescents. But now, charged with setting up our own workspaces at home, we’re faced with a question—what does a good light actually look like?

Magnus Wästberg, founder and CEO of the eponymous Swedish lighting maker Wästberg, has been trying to uncover that answer for the last two decades. “For a million years, our only light was fire,” he explains, paraphrasing his 2008 manifesto, Lamps for Neanderthal Man. “We’ve only had electrical light for 100 years, and now that light is electronic, we’re one step further away from how we evolved.”

Today, Wästberg and his team are seeking out what they term “modern-day fires,” lighting that not only provides adequate illumination, but also makes us feel happy and comfortable. To create a deskside campfire at home, Wästberg has outlined what is essentially an interior designer’s take on three-point lighting, a trifecta of direct light (such as an overhead pendant or task light), indirect light (like a plug-in floor lamp), and, finally, “atmospheric accents,” smaller lights tucked into nearby nooks.

With the help of his elegant lighting solutions, you can transform your home office into a place you actually want to be, a space that doesn’t just shine, but brings you warmth, comfort, and style. After all, says Wästberg, “Good lighting is for you, not on you.”

Jason C. Mayden

The nimble change-maker pushing consumer tech out of its comfort zone

What does a Red Bull-sponsored, 24-mile-high skydive have to do with your new remote-work setup? Both are pet projects of Logitech’s innovation incubator, Liminal Collective. And both are challenging the status quo—just the way one of its new leaders, Jason C. Mayden, likes it.

The former global director of innovation for Nike’s Digital Sport stepped in as partner of Liminal Collective last September and jumped right into solving the technological and cultural challenges of our work-from-home era. “We’re asking deep questions: How do I show up and have true empathy? How do I understand restoration at the end of the week? How do people share experiences?” he says.

Logitech has long equipped remote workers with technology to get the job done (think keyboards and conference calling equipment), but the Liminal lab enables the company to problem-solve and beta-test quickly. So quickly, in fact, that the team has already launched solutions like Spotlight, a presentation tool that draws attention to specific areas (much like a teacher physically pointing to something on a board).

Mayden and company are also experimenting with AI camera technology to help rate room density for social distancing, and tech that incorporates prompts for well-being. “We are living, breathing organisms and beings,” says Mayden. “How we interact with technology is going to have to evolve—cognitively and emotionally.”

Monica Förster

The furniture designer making lockdown life a little more comfortable for everyone

In the thick of this new work-from-home reality, there’s no one better suited than Monica Förster to make the home office a pleasurable place to be, in part because she approaches furniture design with inclusivity in mind and thinks deeply about the different types of end users: those who are smaller; those who are bigger; and those who want more out of their office decor than utilitarian functionality.

In 2009, for instance, she created the Lei office chair, an ergonomic desk chair specifically suited to women’s bodies. Now, since the cubicle crowd has shuffled home and needs to create new workspaces, Förster has even more ideas.

Earlier this year, she released the Tucano desk for Zanotta, a compact work table with a matte-black steel frame and buttery leather covering that is as sleekly tailored as a piece of high-end luggage, a design move that is meant to inspire equally well-crafted work. And this summer, Förster collaborated with Bosnian design firm Zanat to create the Eclipse wall mirror, which comes in pleasing, reflective shapes mounted on textured black plaques that can be installed in various ways as the user pleases.

“We started to think about how people would be spending more time at home, and how to also create a project for the workers of the company,” she says. “We ended up with a collection that’s quite nice.” Why shouldn’t fun follow function?

Itai Palti

The architectural philosopher diving deep into dissonance

Forget the question about the tree in the forest. The next great philosophical quandary is: When we leave the office, do we leave a part of ourselves behind?

At least that’s what Itai Palti has been mulling over lately. From the London-based designer and researcher’s perspective, we’re not just facing a problem of ineffective home-office interior design; we’re facing a mass identity crisis, as we mash up our professional selves and home selves.

“A person is space,” says Palti, who, in addition to his architectural and urban design practice Hume, runs the Centre for Conscious Design (CCD), a grassroots think tank dedicated to harnessing science and technology to create inclusive and healthy built environments. “Space is a player in your identity and a player in your skills.”

Put that into the context of work, Palti argues, and we are different people when we do it from home. That means focusing on basics like ergonomics, yes, but also addressing the less tangible identity-building qualities of a workplace. In the future, designers need to create zones (both virtually and physically) that allow us to connect, find solitude, find focus, find creativity. In a small, intimate room, for instance, we might become the focused version of ourselves, while looking out a large panoramic window might make us more expansive thinkers.

“We need to create cognitive journeys,” Palti explains, even if we’re taking fewer physical ones.

Ready to overhaul your workspace? Make over your home office with these game-changing goods.

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