Office Furniture

The design of office environments is known to be an important factor when it comes to the well-being of employees, and thus also their performance. It is important to have an office environment with a workspace design providing products that aid the employees in their work. Inergo is a furniture company providing such products, mainly focusing on the ergonomic aspects of office furniture, and has long been one of Scandinavia’s leading manufacturers of height adjustable tables. Currently, Inergo has expressed a desire for a new product that is innovative within the market and can be launched quickly.

For this reason, a project was conducted in collaboration with the consultancy agency Catino, having Inergo as intended customer. The goal was to step in as catalyst for innovation and help Inergo by providing a concept for a new product to fit their current product range. The purpose of this thesis is to design and develop a space efficient flexible product solution for the open plan office environment in order to enhance collaboration possibilities. Hence, this master thesis report describes the development of a product for the office environment.
The project process initially includes user studies, stakeholder analysis and problem definition to identify the problem to be solved. Thereafter, the process continues with concept creation, development and evaluation to finally end with construction and visualization of the final concept.

The project resulted in the concept of a flexible product for the open plan office environment, providing both vertical and horizontal workspace that is easy to use and possible to instantly adapt to your needs. It is a concept that saves valuable space within the office environment due to its two separate surfaces and possibility to use these in vertical and horizontal position. Considering the fact that this product could also be used for shielding, it therefore provides the user with five possible field of application within one solution. It is also a product that provides an ergonomic adaptation to physical measurements through incorporating a height adjustable function. This product brings the positive aspects of activity-based environment into the open plan offices by improving collaboration and enable a more interactive and social work environment.