Towards better knowledge work experiences with new Ambient workspace: Concept and prototype

This paper presents a conceptual design of a dynamic and personalizable knowledge workspace suitable for collaboration in academic contexts. The concept of such workspace is aimed to cater the needs of students — as knowledge workers — for flexibility in various types of group and individual knowledge tasks. The research is focused on revealing challenges and obstacles faced by students who perform their daily knowledge work in current workspaces at various premises of Finnish campus. We propose solution that utilizes information technology and interior design. Based on literature on Ambient Intelligence and knowledge work, as well as our empirical user research, we designed a concept of flexible, transformable and user-friendly campus workspace with various features and functionalities. The concept is presented through visualizations and a semi-functional three-dimensional cardboard prototype. The workspace design itself is the main contribution of the current research. Dynamism, flexibility, personalization as well as features of the physical and mental engagement are principal novelties of proposed workspace for university students.