Modern_Work
Recently, we’ve designed two completely contrasting working environments: a call centre for a bank and an office for a tech firm. So it’s perhaps inevitable that one of the themes covered in this first issue of Modernity is the Modern Workplace.
Designing a call centre feels important. We love designing offices for tech firms and libraries for elite universities, but designing environments like contact centres have a bigger potential to make a meaningful difference to people in their everyday lives. Over 750,000 people work in call centres in the UK and they have a significant impact on the experience we get as consumers. When we're confused, concerned, disappointed or angry, we phone. These emotional moments are proof points for a customer, and the environment, culture and tools within a customer support centre should support employees in dealing with these difficult situations. That's often not the case.
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The result is undoubtedly a poorer experience for the customer, but what about the impact on call centre employees? There is academic evidence that: "the distinctive character of call-handling is the major cause of occupational ill-health and that effective remedial action would involve radical job redesign.": Radical job redesign. We like the sound of that.sagepub.com
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The studies on activity-based working cited in this article from The Conversation show that many employees do not work well in these environments, and the implications for call-centre style work are instructive. The article's conclusion is that workplaces should be designed to support both well-being and productivity, and supports the more nuanced approach we're taking in the call centre.theconversation.com
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Unsurprisingly, job autonomy is positively associated with greater employee engagement, role breadth, self-efficacy (confidence in one's own abilities), flexibility, organisational commitment and feelings of ownership. springer.com
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studio thoughts
As the Modern Human team pointed out at a recent meeting with senior management: "Contact centres have reached the limits of Digital Taylorism. Attempts to make the current processes more efficient lead to unforeseen human costs that reduce staff happiness and have impacts like increasing unplanned absence. They are actually reducing efficiency. Rather than optimise the current work practices, we need to rethink how we organise work to optimise employee happiness, effectiveness and engagement."
Modern_City
Workplaces are just one part of any cityscape. Zoom out and you notice that the way cities are being designed and thought about is changing. What risks do we run if we continue to allow our cities to be built and developed in spite of residents instead of for them, and what can we do about it? As Jane Jacobs argued in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961): community is the answer. From the sense of identity created through co-designed housing developments to the rallying of local people to protest unwanted smart cities, the articles below suggest that we all have the power to shape the future of our cities and we should use it.
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Inequality is being built into our cities. This piece examines the impact ‘for-rich’ housing developments could have on access to services and facilities as basic as safe sewage disposal for those living on the outside.theconversation.com
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Toronto’s proposed ‘smart city’ Quayside development has been opposed by residents since first announced in 2017. Initial questions around privacy, data and surveillance have been joined by issues surrounding gentrification, privatisation, and the role of publicly unaccountable commercial entities creating policy. Google offshoot Sidewalk Labs is running roughshod over the privacy, liberties and democratic rights of Toronto residents in the name of profit. This article looks at how the wider community are reacting, and the difference it could make to the future of their city.briarpatchmagazine.com
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The alternative to the imperialist approach of Big Technology firms is, of course, to work with residents to co-design and cocreate places that foster real, living, human communities. Marmalade Lane in Cambridge, England is small co-housing development that was designed in conjunction with residents. The sense of community and belonging in those that live there stands as a beacon of hope for the future of housing.guardian.com
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The city of Lausanne in Switzerland is currently undergoing a similar process. Place de la Riponne has been warped by ungainly traffic planning and brutalist early 1960s architecture. The city has taken the bold step of using co-design and community consultation to attempt the fix the problem. This radically inclusive process is not only fixing the aesthetics of the city, it’s also helping residents build community ties and address questions of identity. citylab.com
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This talk by Richard Sennett provides broader context. In it, the Sociologist and Urban Planner argues for the idea of open cities, and examines the differences between borders and boundaries. Could more permeable borders encourage increased diversity in our communities and offer a solution to inequality within cities? Youtube.com
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Studio notes
Our design studio is always busy, but July seems to have been busier than ever. We’ve put the finishing touches to the Customer Experience (CX) Strategy for a challenger Bank. We’ve delivered a redesigned workplace for a tech firm and a call centre for a Bank and we’ve created a CX Vision for a Publisher. We’ve won a pitch for the BBC and been appointed to their design research roster.
Amongst all of this our newest Mods, Lauren and Tom, have been working hard on new ways to share our ideas, start conversations and have a positive influence in the world. Last month’s Pizza Block event was part of their work. As is this new newsletter. We’re also working on a new series of interviews with leading thinkers, and in the next few months we’ll be releasing our first Modernity Report. The first one will examine the Modern Workplace.
We’ve been announced as finalists for the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) Awards in 2 categories for our work on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. Results will be announced at the ceremony in September.
And finally, we’ve launched 4 new case studies on our website. You can find out about our work for VisitScotland and Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries & Museums. You can also read about 2 service design projects for Tesco Bank: Collections & Recoveries and Insurance Renewals.
