I recently
chaired the Workplace Trends (WT) conference in Copenhagen - after 15 years of
running WT, it was the first outside of the UK, so quite a milestone. One of
the recurring themes was around designing for individuals, or specific groups
or types of individuals. The speakers referred to personal factors such as age,
personality and parental status. There was some discussion around whether we
should design for the individual or the organisation. The general consensus
appeared to be that we should design for a majority (perhaps the average ± 1sd)
as we can’t design for everyone. But to achieve this we must offer choice, of a
range of spatial and environmental settings, rather than a one-size-fits-all
solution based on the assumed (or sometimes dictated) average.
