When you design a workplace for a client, you want to create a space that reflects their brand identity and values, as well as meets their functional and aesthetic needs. But how can you align the needs assessment process with your client's brand identity and values? Here are some tips to help you achieve this goal.
Before you start the needs assessment, you need to understand the client's brand identity and values. What is their mission, vision, and culture? How do they want to communicate with their customers, employees, and stakeholders? What are their unique selling points and differentiators? You can use various methods to gather this information, such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, or document analysis. You can also review their existing branding materials, such as logos, websites, brochures, or social media.
Once you have a clear picture of the client's brand identity and values, you need to define the objectives of the workplace design project. What are the main problems or challenges that the client wants to solve or address? What are the desired outcomes or benefits that the client expects from the new or improved workplace? How will the workplace design support the client's brand identity and values? You can use tools such as SMART goals, SWOT analysis, or logic models to help you articulate the objectives and link them to the brand identity and values.
The next step is to assess the needs of the client and the users of the workplace. What are the current and future needs of the client in terms of space, layout, furniture, equipment, technology, lighting, acoustics, or sustainability? What are the preferences, expectations, and feedback of the users in terms of comfort, functionality, productivity, collaboration, creativity, or well-being? How do these needs align with the client's brand identity and values? You can use techniques such as observation, walkthroughs, audits, or user testing to collect and analyze the needs data.
After you have assessed the needs, you need to prioritize them according to their importance and urgency. How critical are the needs for achieving the objectives and supporting the brand identity and values? How feasible are the needs in terms of resources, time, budget, or constraints? You can use methods such as ranking, scoring, or matrix to help you prioritize the needs and identify the gaps or opportunities for improvement.
The final step is to communicate the needs to the client and other stakeholders in a clear and compelling way. How can you present the needs in a way that demonstrates their alignment with the client's brand identity and values? How can you use visual, verbal, or written elements to convey the needs effectively? You can use formats such as reports, presentations, diagrams, or prototypes to help you communicate the needs and solicit feedback or approval from the client and other stakeholders.
At GSoft, our mantra was to "keep GSoft weird", a call to arms to retain our distinctive essence and not to lose the core of our company culture. Embodying this spirit, we built an indoor skatepark. Why, you might ask? Firstly, it reflected the founders' zeal and stood as a bold statement of our ability to break the mould—doing what others may not even dare to consider. This skatepark became more than a leisure spot; it was a symbol, our own totem, a constant reminder to uphold our value of daring the impossible and always steering clear of the commonplace.
Great article. From my perspective, another important consideration when you get to play back everything is presenting how the brand can be emphasised in the design, how it can motivate and inspire how they want team members to feel. At both Rebel and Super Retail Group we used large scale wall images that reflected the brand emotionally as a way to make people feel proud of where they work and how they help people live their passion. We also worked on what was important and how design helped provide solutions to key issues being experienced. An important consideration here from a design perspective was implementing activity based working and then determining how big a neighbourhood should be. The other aspect is