I ran the workshop on Tuesday November 5th and was really pleased with how it went and the conversations that ensued. Of my 23 first year students, I had around 16 in the room, and around 8 or 9 chose to participate. I would have liked more but this number worked really well in the end. I was very thorough in terms of ethics (consent forms, emphasising it was optional etc) and worry this put some of them off (as they maybe didn’t understand how chill it actually was going to be), that said, I am not sure how I could have handled it differently while still obeying the letter of the law ethics wise. Signed consent forms are available to view on request (please email me).
The outline for my workshop is available to read here.
We started off drawing our dream workspaces. This was every bit as fascinating as I’d hoped.
While students spent around 25 minutes on their drawings, I moved around the space, listening to and participating in their conversations about their dream workspaces. Already, a few clear ‘camps’ were emerging in terms of overall workplace style
Firstly, there were those who wanted their workspace to be as cosy as it possibly could be — lots of soft spaces to sit, warm/dim lighting, ‘cosy corners’. One student said ‘as much like a bedroom as possible’, though another student noted ‘but not too much or all I’d do is sleep!’
Secondly, there were those who valued collaboration and company, and whose dream workspace imagined facilities which took into account the needs of others as well as themselves (everything from just the illustrator’s partner, through to a whole studio full of people). I was kind of surprised by how many students went down this route, which just shows some of my own personal biases, I suppose!
Thirdly, there were those who wanted a solo workspace that was totally optimised to their own unique workflow — here there was an emphasis on equipment, storage, space, light, and bespoke functionality.
(You can read these brief notes here)
Once students had completed their drawings, I asked them to add post-it notes with captions explaining their preferences (making sure to pause and snap these at this moment). I emphasised to students that the more post-it notes they added the better, for what we were going to do next.
With our post-it notes added, we removed them from the drawings, and collaboratively sorted them into areas of interest (many thanks to colleague Patrick for documenting this section)
Sorting the post-its gave great insight into the diversity of themes which students cared about in their spaces…
These being:
- People (and pets!)
- Windows (closely connected with…)
- Lighting
- Space
- Seating (cosy)
- Seating (upright/functional)
- Flooring
- Storage
- Equipment
- Facilities
- Temperatures/humidity
- Art/personalisation
After we had grouped our themes, I introduced students to the notion of the ‘archetype’, which is UX is often used to create archtypal people, but I was curious about whether it could also create archetypal workspaces.
I highlighted the archetypes I had seen emerging, which were described in brief above. The students agreed with these as broad categories:
The bright, collaborative studio
The cosy, warm studio
The functional, bespoke, solitary studio
And after some discussion, though not that many of them had thought of this, they all loved the idea of ‘the green studio’ (heavy on plant life and natural light)
The natural/green studio
With these archetypes in mind, they gathered imagery online that reflected these spaces (I offered them the opportunity to use AI, and while some of them sourced AI images crafted by others, none of them used it themselves that I saw)
Gathering these images aimed to cultivate a shared understanding of types of space, and indeed, students didn’t just gather images for their own preferred studio type, they also gathered images across all of the archetypes. There was an interesting discussion about how the solo/bespoke studio so quickly strays into ‘man cave’ aesthetics, which I did think speaks to an interesting history of male dominance when it comes to being able to claim and design solo spaces.
For the final section of the workshop, I asked them to note down on post-its what aspects of studio life they consider to be flexible and adaptable – this is based on my research interviews which discussed the potential of a more flexible, changable space at different times and days. Only a few respondents had any ideas about this (arguably the hardest question of the workshop).
The majority of their responses focussed on their percieved need for more quiet/isolated study spaces:
It was interesting to me that they all focussed on physically changeable elements, because at the beginning of my research this was also where my mind first went. However I have subsequently become more inspired by the idea of time as a changeable element rather than physical objects (i.e. that the studio becomes different things at different times). I am excited to see what the students make of this idea, if it is an intervention I pursue!
Key insight statements
Students highly value comfort in their work spaces, but definitions of comfort are highly subjective, varied and individual.
It was possible to discover some broad archetypal models for ideal studios. Given that ‘the bespoke solitary’ studio is outside the realms of possibility in a collaborative space, and ‘the cosy studio’ also tended towards being solitary, ‘the bright collaborative studio’ and ‘the natural, green studio’ are particular sources for inspiration when shaping our studio environment, and we can also take inspiration from relevant aspects of the cosy and bespoke solitary studios.
Students tended to socially cluster based on their studio preferences, implying particular social connections between those who also share ideals about what a studio should be like
Key ‘How might we’s’
How might we enable students to adapt the studio space to meet some aspects of their own comfort needs
How might we take inspiration from the archetypal studios as defined in this workshop, combining the best elements of all of them to create an adaptable space
How might we support students to build their collective vision of what a studio should be, and empower them to adapt our space accordingly