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The New Zealand company behind the world's best ergonomic chair is now selling a revolutionary workplace system through the United States and is rolling out its design through Australasia.
Lower Hutt's Formway Furniture says it has designed an environment that mirrors the way the mind works. Called Hum,
the open-office system is the result of a four-year study into the way people work and what they need to perform at their best. Formway signed a licence deal with Indiana-based Kimball Office in October and Hum is now being sold throughout the United States.
Formway's product manager Emma Smith said Kimball Office had reported a positive response and identified a number of market opportunities in America.
Hum was launched at Neacon, a major international trade show in Chicago in June, then introduced to Australasia on July 30. The work station will be on display in Auckland this Thursday.
Formway's Life chair won 11 international awards, including the world's best ergonomic chair, and is now sold in more than 50 countries.
General marketing manager Ed Burak said while researching the Hum design, Formway talked to employees at every level in workplaces worldwide about their attitudes, habits and workplace culture.
The company brought in external expertise in new areas of science, such as attentiveness, cognitive psychology, cognitive ergonomics and workplace collaboration.
Burak says the design team discovered that, regardless of their occupation, a working day for most people is a combination between working on their own and team tasks.
The final design includes neutral meeting spaces between desks and screens that show staff when a colleague is busy working and when they are free for a quick exchange.
It includes systems for workers to prioritise tasks into what needs to be done now, soon or later.
The work station is an unorthodox shape, providing an area of personal space and an outward curve on the front edge so a few people can gather round a computer screen and all have equal access.
Smith said the aim was to increase the likelihood of innovation to occur.
The research looked at how employees process information, prioritise, organise, use visual cues, filter distractions and are aware of the environment. "It's the other work that happens at desks that's really important, it's not just the reading and writing - it's the interaction with colleagues in the cluster," she said.
A wide range of businesses, including banks, researchers and large corporate companies, had expressed interest in the product, Smith said.
Hum won Building magazine's annual Product Innovation Award, Interior Design magazine's environmental award, and has been well-received at product launches.=