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The coronavirus has taken the world by surprise and caused destruction in the way that people live. There has been lockdown all over the globe and everyone is worried about what the future holds and how long this isolation will last. Besides, it is clear that after the COVID-19 engulfed the world, society will not go back to normal any time soon. Hence, many countries have resolved to reopen their economies, however, several of them after witnessing the severe projections are shutting back down. Further, the reopened world seems very different from what we are used to. For instance, the open restaurants are half full and other entertainment areas like cinemas are empty. Without any vaccine for the disease, we cannot expect the world to go back to its former shape anytime soon. It causes very deep alarming thoughts.

Nonetheless, the COVID-19 crisis also presents us with extensive opportunities and powerful motives to make some necessary changes. The crisis has exposed serious vulnerabilities in our current systems and norms. For this reason, I have come up with a way to redesign and building a post-COVID-19 workplace. The problem I wish to solve with redesigning the workplace is the issue of too much interaction while working in regard to the COVID-19 crisis. It is certain that even after the world reopens all its businesses, people are going to be in fear of interacting freely like they used to prior to the pandemic. Hence, redesigning the workplace will ensure that employees and employers in their different workplaces will work more comfortably.

Solution design.

The design solution that we can come up with is redesigning and building workplaces. The new design will ensure that there is limited physical interactions, social distancing, utilization of advanced technology, contactless office, and proper ventilation. For instance, for an open office where employees are suited in one big room, the new design will ensure that they are separated by partitions and all of them are wearing masks. The initial, definite step in reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission in places of work is to avert the import of the virus into the office. The United States Centers for Disease Control suggests that people who suspect they have contracted the disease should be isolated in their homes. Keeping this in mind, not all workers need to back to their work. Therefore, our design, which is meant to adhere to social distancing rules will be well implemented. We will keep a distance of at least one meter while redesigning our open offices. In the meantime, those other employees who suspect they have the virus can be working from home before their various companies acquire land to expand their offices.

Besides, this design will embrace a contactless office. One of the most significant ways that coronavirus spreads are through touching contaminated and infected surfaces. Therefore, to ensure that when our employees return to their various workplaces, they are going to be safe, we can leverage advanced technology to come up with a contactless workplace. The aim is to eradicate the necessity of workers pressing communal buttons. For instance, employees can switch to using smartphones to send some commands to the work coffee machine. Further, motion sensors or face recognition algorithms can be implemented on door handles, elevator buttons, as well as toilet flush handles to eliminate the need to touch these surfaces. Apart from keeping a distance of at least one meter in our offices, we will ensure that the office is well ventilated for the proper circulation of air.

Past Approaches

Apple, iPhone 4s featuring Siri, October 2011. Apple company came up with Siri a responsive object that was voice-activated. They also referred it to intelligence assistant for Apple iPhone 4s. Siri was a technology that could convert one's voice into text and allow an individual to send a message, schedule meetings, make calls, search, and many others (p. 26). This approach can be compared to the contactless office that will ensure people come into less contact with surfaces. For instance, the introduction of smartphones in workplaces for employees to send commands to the coffee machine instead of physically going to make the coffee. It is a good example of how the past approach of Siri in iPhone 4s can be used in the post-COVID 19 workplace redesigns of offices. Besides, using motion sensors or face recognition algorithms on door handles can as well reduce contact of surfaces. Just like Siri would and can allow an individual to send a text message or make a call to someone without touching the mobile call, is the same way implementing sensors and face recognitions on office doors will present us a contactless office.

"Eyes Which Do Not See: Automobiles." It focused on amending standards to tackle the problem of perfection. An experiment had to be established to define a standard. Hence, a new spirit of construction and synthesis comes in. After a standard is developed, competition comes immediately. It is now a battle, and to win, one needs to be better than their competitor all the time, in controlling the product in question and its every detail. An example of a product with standards is a motor-car. Every motor-car has similar arrangements. However, due to the never-ending rivalry between innumerable companies that manufacture them, each of them has found themselves compelled to reach the top of the competition and over the standard of practical realization, to prosecute the search for perfection and harmony, however of beauty (Carma Gorman 2003 p. 92). This is where style is born. Displaying both the Parthenon and the motor-car presented clearly the question of product selection in distinct fields. Hence, the automobile was raised. The connection between this approach and workplace redesign is that initial workplaces were designed to be closed in one room without any separation or distance between the employees, however; the solution we have come up with is an example of how offices can become automobile. Automobile in the sense that they can be redesigned to take another form until the initial setting of offices. It means that they can take any form provided it meets the requirements of being an office. Just like we have different motor-cars but they have identical arrangements.

"The Designers Place in Industry". It raises the question of where does the designer fit in the scheme of industrial things if appearance design is really significant. It might take a designer many years to find his or her proper level in the field of business. Immediately the designer had made a dent in the company, it was probably only natural for him to magnify his significance in the scheme of things. A designer who has several gifts of artistic capability, mechanical sense, and marketing mind may become essential to his customer if these talents are allowed full scope. Nonetheless, the designer should be careful not to exaggerate his significance by taking the attitude that appearance alone. The designer is an animator, a builder of enthusiasm in other people. A designer presents his customers with an extensive design perspective than a person who has a lot of responsibilities (Carma Gorman, p. 116). The connection of this approach to the solution we presented is that we are cannot be sure if every organization will accept our new design in their work environment. Just as a designer presents his or her design to clients, this new design of offices can be presented to various organizations for them to choose if they can implement in their firms.

Work Cited

Carma Gorman (2003). The Industrial Design Reader.

The 1980s-2000s: Impacts of Computerization, Digital Networking, Interoperability+ the Rise of Interface/Interaction Design.