Research-Led Workplace Experience Design

As an Assistant Designer at Space Matrix, I contributed to this workplace experience project. While not a digital product, it used the same research-led approach that later shaped my move into UX/UI design.

This case study highlights the research process, key findings, behavioral personas, workplace requirements, and the final workplace experience concept that emerged from the work.

Figure 1: Research-informed zoning concept for the workplace experience.

At a Glance

Sector: Workplace Experience Design
Challenge: Understand employee needs, identify workplace friction, and translate insights into design recommendations.
My Role: Assistant Designer supporting research, synthesis, persona creation, concept development, and visual communication.
Timeline: 3 weeks, from research to stakeholder presentation.

Context

The project focused on understanding how employees across different teams used their workplace.

The goal was not just to improve the physical office. It was to understand how people worked, where the current environment created friction, and what kinds of spaces could better support focus, collaboration, meetings, movement, and informal interaction.

**Figure 2:** Research overview showing interview scope, teams, and focus areas.

Research approach

The research was based on interviews with senior leaders and team representatives across different work groups.

The interview guide covered team workflows, what worked and did not work in the current space, meeting styles, collaboration needs, storage, technology, privacy, and tools.

The questions were used as prompts, allowing the conversation to stay open while still covering the main research areas.

**Figure 3:** Interview guide used to structure open-ended workplace conversations.

Synthesizing employee needs

After the interviews, I helped translate the feedback into visual summaries that made the findings easier to compare across teams.

The findings pointed to recurring needs around adjustable workstations, lockers and storage, meeting room flexibility, phone booths, writable surfaces, technology support, and better spaces for informal collaboration.

**Figure 4:** Synthesized findings around workstations, storage, and team effectiveness.

**Figure 5:** Synthesized findings around meetings, collaboration, and shared spaces.

Key workplace findings

The research was then broken down into focused workplace categories. Each category captured what worked, what did not work, and what needed improvement.

This made the findings more actionable because each space type could be evaluated against employee feedback.

Space-by-space breakdown of employee feedback across desks, collaboration areas, training rooms, and recreation spaces.

Creating behavior-based personas

Instead of creating personas by role or department, I created behavior-based personas.

One employee could move through multiple modes in a single day: deep focus, fast coordination, collaboration, and informal engagement. This made the personas more useful for workplace planning because the design needed to support shifting behaviors, not fixed user types.

**Figure 7:** Behavior-based personas showing shifting employee work modes.

Translating behavior into space

The personas were then translated into spatial requirements.

Focused work pointed to acoustic control, task lighting, ergonomic seating, and privacy. Collaboration required writable surfaces, flexible seating, natural light, and informal discussion areas. Fast-paced work needed connectivity, meeting readiness, and support for video calls. Engagement required open areas, lounge seating, and spaces for social connection.

**Figure 8:** Translating employee behaviors into spatial requirements.

Workplace experience concept

The final concept framed the workplace as a day-in-the-life experience.

The journey moved through arrival, reception, candidate experience, employee experience, focus, team work, collaboration, wellness, brand recall, and departure. Each moment connected a type of employee need to a workplace touchpoint.

This helped position the workplace as more than a set of rooms. It became an experience system designed around how people focus, meet, collaborate, recharge, and connect with the organization.

**Figure 9:** Workplace experience journey across focus, collaboration, wellness, and brand touch-points.

**Figure 10:** Zoning diagram translating research insights into workplace areas.

Closing note

This project helped me recognize that my interest was not limited to physical space. I was interested in how people move through systems, where friction appears, and how design can support real behavior.

That same thinking later carried into UX/UI.

The medium changed from workplace environments to digital products, but the process stayed familiar: research users, synthesize patterns, define requirements, and design around the experience.

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