Human-Centered Workplace Design

As the name implies, human-centered workplace design focuses on the needs of the individual people working in the office. There are multiple ways to interpret this concept, including a focus on health and sustainability, user-friendliness, and appealing design that makes employees feel comfortable and “at home” when they’re in the office. Human-centered design places a heavier emphasis on what it might feel like to be in the workplace rather than focusing on bottom-line concerns alone. This doesn’t mean that human-centered workplaces are not cost effective, but the concept represents a movement away from strictly impersonal utilitarianism in office design. Proponents of human-centered workplace design might argue that the workplace is an important resource for recruiting and productivity and therefore should be treated as more than a collection of physical assets.