Research Focus for "Workspace Experience"

Rather than asking:

"Is the workspace good?"

Ask:

"How does the workspace enable or constrain the way students learn, create, collaborate,
and present their work?"

This keeps the project centered on user experience.

Common Research Framework

Both groups investigate the same themes:

Physical Environment

 Layout

 Furniture

 Lighting

 Storage

 Accessibility

Workflow

 How does work begin?

 Where does work happen?

 How does it end?

Collaboration

 Individual work

 Team work

 Faculty interaction

Learning

 Demonstrations

 Critiques

 Peer learning
Resources

 Equipment

 Materials

 Technology

Display

 Pin-up spaces

 Prototype display

 Digital presentation

 Jury setup

Well-being

 Comfort

 Noise

 Break areas

 Fatigue

Mapping Tools

Tool Why

Behavioral Map How students use the space

Journey Map A typical studio day

Workflow Map Design process through the space

Stakeholder Map Students, faculty, technicians, visitors

Activity Map Where different activities occur

Affinity Diagram Synthesizing findings

Experience Map Emotional highs and lows during studio work

Notice that behavioral mapping becomes especially valuable because students can compare
how different disciplines occupy and transform their workspaces throughout the day.

Expected Insight Differences

Insights may relate to:

 Movement between tools and benches

 Shared equipment bottlenecks

 Prototype storage

 Safety

 Material organization

 Workshop supervision

Typical HMW:

 How might we support seamless transitions between designing and making?

 How might we improve access to shared fabrication resources?

Animation

Insights may relate to:

 Long hours at computers

 Screen collaboration

 File sharing

 Review spaces

 Ergonomics

 Concentration versus discussion

Typical HMW:

 How might we support both focused digital work and collaborative critique?

 How might we make digital reviews more interactive?

For your Product Design students

Given your broader curriculum in user research and later systems thinking, I would actually
recommend Product Design vs Animation. They represent two ends of the design spectrum:

 Product Design is centered on physical artifacts, fabrication, materials, and

Despite these differences, both still involve iterative design, critiques, collaboration, and
exhibitions. This allows students to discover a powerful insight:

A workspace is not just a room with furniture—it is an ecosystem designed to support a

That realization helps them understand that products, spaces, services, and educational
environments should all be designed around users' activities rather than around
assumptions about what a workspace "should" look like.

This can become one of the strongest projects in your module because students are not
simply comparing two rooms—they are comparing two design ecosystems. The research
question is:

"How does the workspace influence the way students learn, create, collaborate, and
produce design outcomes?"

This shifts the focus from the physical environment to the relationship between space,
people, tools, activities, and pedagogy.

Overall Project

Theme

Workspace Experience in Design Education

Group 1

Product Design Studio & Workshop

Group 2

Animation Studio / Digital Lab

Both groups follow the same research framework, making their findings comparable.

Scope of User Research

Instead of evaluating furniture or infrastructure, students investigate the complete

The study should answer questions such as:

 How does the workspace support those activities?

 What interrupts work?

 How do students collaborate?

 How do faculty teach?

 How does the space influence creativity and learning?

Stakeholders

Both groups should identify all stakeholders.

Product Design

 Students

 Faculty

 Lab technician

 Workshop assistant

 Housekeeping

 Jury members

 Visitors

Animation

 Students

 Faculty

 IT support

 Lab administrator

 Jury members

 Visitors

Students quickly realize that many people shape the workspace experience.

Research Themes
Theme 1: Nature of Work

Product Design

Activities include:

 Sketching

 Model making

 Material exploration

 Machine work

 Prototype testing

Questions

 What activities require movement?

 Which activities require concentration?

 Which require collaboration?

Animation

Activities include:

 Storyboarding

 Digital illustration

 Animation

 Rendering

 Editing

Questions

 When do students work individually?

 When do they collaborate?

 How often do they review work?

Theme 2: Workflow

Students create a workflow map.

Product Design
Brief↓Research↓Sketch↓Prototype↓Test↓Modify↓Final model↓Jury

Observe:

 Where each activity happens

 Movement between spaces

 Bottlenecks

Animation

Brief↓Research↓Storyboard↓Illustration↓Animation↓Rendering↓Editing↓Presentation

Observe:

 Digital workflow

 File sharing

 Review cycles

Theme 3: Behaviour Mapping

Probably the most valuable exercise.

Observe:

Where do students:

 spend most time?

 collaborate?

 wait?

 ask faculty questions?

 gather?

 display work?

 take breaks?

Product Design

Behavior map reveals:

 Tool movement
  Machine usage

 Congestion

 Storage behaviour

 Cleanup

Animation

Behavior map reveals:

 Screen sharing

 Discussion clusters

 Individual work

 Break patterns

 Quiet zones

Theme 4: Learning Behaviour

Observe

Faculty demonstrations

Peer learning

Independent work

Critiques

Questions

Feedback

Notice how teaching changes the workspace.

Product Design

Learning often occurs:

around machines

around prototypes

around workbenches
Animation

Learning often occurs:

around screens

through digital projection

during reviews

Theme 5: Collaboration

Questions

How do teams work?

Where do discussions happen?

How is feedback shared?

Product Design

Collaboration is often physical.

People gather around:

models

machines

materials

Animation

Collaboration often happens digitally.

Students:

share screens

review files

exchange assets

Theme 6: Display and Jury

Pin-up

Reviews

Presentation

Prototype display

Movement of faculty

Movement of students

Interaction during critiques

Product Design

Large physical models

Need tables

Need circulation

Need handling

Animation

Need projection

Need audio

Need darkened room

Need viewing angle

Theme 7: Storage

Observe

Where work is kept.

Product Design

Large prototypes

Materials

Tools
Safety equipment

Animation

Digital storage

Hard drives

Servers

Backup

Charging

Theme 8: Interruptions

Very interesting.

Product Design

Waiting for machine

Missing tool

Noise

Dust

Material shortage

Animation

Software crash

Rendering time

Power failure

Slow computer

File version confusion

Mapping Tools

Behavioral Mapping ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Where do activities happen?

Where do they stop?

Workflow Mapping ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

How does work progress?

Where are bottlenecks?

Journey Mapping ⭐⭐⭐⭐

One student's studio day

Arrival↓Setup↓Work↓Feedback↓Revision↓Cleanup↓Leave

Stakeholder Mapping ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Who influences the workspace?

Activity Mapping ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Excellent here.

Instead of movement:

Map activities

Sketching

Model making

Discussion

Critique

Printing

Testing

Affinity Diagram ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cluster

Collaboration
Storage

Comfort

Technology

Safety

Learning

Possible Insights

Product Design

Observation

Students frequently move between workbench and storage.

Insight

Physical prototyping involves continuous movement between tools, materials, and

HMW

How might we reduce unnecessary movement during prototyping?

Observation

Students wait for faculty before using machines.

Insight

Students associate machine use with expert supervision rather than independent learning.

HMW

How might we increase confidence while maintaining safety?

Observation

Teams spread across several worktables.

Insight

Collaboration extends beyond a single workstation and depends on flexible access to space
and shared resources.

HMW
How might we support team-based making without disrupting others?

Animation

Observation

Students remain seated for long periods.

Insight

Digital creative work alternates between long periods of individual focus and short bursts of
collaborative discussion.

HMW

How might we better support transitions between focused work and collaboration?

Observation

Students frequently gather around one screen.

Insight

Feedback is most effective when work can be viewed and discussed collectively.

HMW

How might we improve shared review experiences?

Observation

Rendering causes downtime.

Insight

Technical processing time becomes an opportunity for informal collaboration or task

HMW

How might we help students make productive use of unavoidable waiting periods?

Final Comparison

Product Design Animation

Movement-intensive Stationary but screen-intensive

Physical tools Digital tools

Material storage Digital asset management

Noise and fabrication Quiet concentration

Workshop safety Ergonomics and visual comfort

Physical prototypes Digital outputs

Hands-on demonstrations Screen-based critiques

Educational Outcome

This project teaches a fundamental principle of design research:

A workspace is designed around activities, not around furniture.

By comparing Product Design and Animation, students discover that every element of the
environment—layout, equipment, lighting, storage, collaboration spaces, review areas, and
even circulation—is shaped by how people learn and create. This helps them understand
that effective workspace design begins with studying users, their tasks, and their interactions
rather than starting with assumptions about the physical space itself.