The first workshop of this year came at the end. The workshop, led by Gabriella Piccolo and Elena Novati and in partnership with Spaces, an IWG Group (international Workplace Group) brand, was focused on the user research dealing with the topic of co-working. In our previous article you can check the client's brief. The workshop aimed to investigate how the research strategy plays an important role in the early stages of the design process, helping to have an in-depth understanding of the business, useful to orientate the concept stage in the right direction.
Students worked hard from the definition of the qualitative research plan to the outputs presentation. They had the opportunity to conduct a field research on site, experiencing first hand the ethnographic observation in a coworking space where they interviewed users and prospect clients. Then, they analyzed and translated the findings into insights to build significant personas and how might wes. Among each team's findings, insights and outputs there have been similarities and differences.
The final results investigate different topics, such as, for example, the opportunity to customize and humanize the coworking space, bringing it closer to each user's needs and lifestyle. An interesting insight is the necessity for a parent to have a dedicated space in the coworking for her or his kids. Another important topic is the right balance between to sharing and not sharing: privacy inside the coworking space. Thanks to another team emerged the topic of flexibility of spaces. This means the possibility to have flexible spaces in which users can isolate themselves but also build up their personal network 'Like LinkedIn in real life', matching people's working interests. A team also pointed out the opportunity to design industry-specific coworking spaces, to foster networking and collaboration possibilities among users. The clear communication and availability of all the services that are part of the coworking spaces emerged to be a critical problem: maybe there are additional services, but users aren't aware of them. How might we grow the popularity of the brand and its services? There are also different pandemic-related insights, such as the balance between safety and personal proximity and to assure a safe environment while maintaining its collaborative inner soul.
Each team did a great job during these five days of hard work. We're proud of the outputs and happy about the client's positive feedback.
