A face to face conversation is more vibrant, more lively, more possibilities to understand a person’s body language, and the intentions correctly. All these elements are missing over virtual connections.

Can meeting virtually weaken professional relationships over time? Is there a new way to restore them?

How might we find ways to maintain professional relationships through this pandemic period?

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Designing is more than creating products and services; it can be applied to systems, procedures, protocols, and customer experiences.

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Working from home is convenient for staff as it saves commuting time, but it comes with its own set of challenges, especially in the lock down when the whole family is home and there are many additional responsibilities. But with the lockdowns being gradually lifted, the real effects of WFH need to seen and discussed.

Workers need in job to earn money to live, but they also see the office as a getaway from the life at home. The young need an opportunity to meet people, to socialise, to find friends with shared interests and, indeed, to find life partners. In WFH, it is too easy for people to be lonely and even to develop anti-social behaviour.

Office workers are not the only ones working from home, school and college students are also learning from home. It is easy for anyone to understand the need for children to go to school to learn to deal with others, to play games and to make friends, to escape from parental control, to grow up learn to be independent. There are many effective educational programmes available on the web but none of these can take care of the other reasons why children need to go to school. It is perhaps for the same reason that people like to go to office to work.

Office spaces are setup for people to work. Organisations provide not just the physical space but also appropriate equipment and furniture, facilities like printing, IT support, maintenance of equipment, tea/coffee/food, counselling for inter personal problems and even air-conditioning. In WFH, all these become the responsibility of the worker. Homes, typically, do not have the appropriate space for working. It becomes complicated, if there is more than one person Working from Home. While some people have found the WFH during lockdown as convenient, many others have tolerated it as a purely temporary phenomenon. If WFH is to be continued for a longer time, a better solution is required. People need better working conditions than the place of living can provide. Many women’s organisations are complaining about ill treatment of women by their partners and families.

Remote Working presents many advantages for organisations, for individual workers and for society at large. It reduces the need for transit within a city and eventually, within the larger context. Since meetings take place online, it is not necessary for people to live in the vicinity of their work place. People live in cities because they are big job markets. Taken to a logical conclusion, WFH may well create a single large global job market. Work visas may no longer be needed to work in a particular country, workers could work from anywhere in the world, from their own village in India, if they like. Jobs would go to the lowest bidder with the best qualifications, irrespective of bidder’s nationality.

The Win-Win-Win Solution

From Society’s point of view the place of work should be close to place of living, within range of non-motorised mode of transport. Many urban planners believe in a theoretical construct with decentralised commercial areas surrounded by residential areas. Urban economists believe that such a model exists only on paper.

From the point of view of the worker, the place of work should be within walking or cycling distance. It should provide good data connectivity, clean, air-conditioned space with furniture appropriate for office, security, pantry for tea/coffee and lunch, toilets, a place to take audio and video calls, to meet others and a place to rest.

From the point of view of the employer, the place of work ought to be secure for people and data, and be capable of operating with minimum oversight and intervention. It should be a low-cost solution, ideally paid for by the savings in money and time that will accrue to workers in WFH. The organisation will also save on the cost of normal office workspace, but these savings may not be available immediately because of the cost of social distancing in offices.

The requirements of the Society, the employee and the employer can be met by a network of small decentralised Remote Working spaces, available within or close to residential areas. Ideally such workspaces should be available for use round the clock and throughout the week. Young people do not always keep office work hours and offices with international operations, have more than one shift running. The level of activity in Commercial areas falls drastically after 6 pm and they are considered unsafe in the evening. Residential areas, on the other hand, are occupied 24×7.

Do urban zoning regulations allow de-centralised work in residential areas? In Mumbai, mixed land use is the norm, so it may be easy to create Remote Work locations close to residential areas. In Delhi, there are three types of middle-class residential areas – Co-operative housing with 100-500 apartments in mid-rise blocks, Government built walk up apartments with stairs shared by 2 apartments per floor, houses with 4 apartments on individual plots of land.

Co-operative housing is almost always a gated community, controlled by a Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) who places restrictions on all comings and goings. If an apartment is to be used for work, it will require permission from RWA. It may be possible for residents of the co-op society to Remote Work within their own Society without objection from RWA.Government builthousing is also managed by an RWA but with fewer controls on how people use their apartments. Many commercial activities take place there and Remote Working may be easiest to be organise in such apartments.Space in 4 floor apartments on individual plots can be used as shared office space without any controls so long as it is allowed by zoning regulations. At the present, architects, engineers, lawyers and accountants can operate offices from their residences. A small change in the zoning regulations may be needed to include other ITES workers. Bangalore and Pune’s regulations are similar to Delhi.

The time is ripe to think about changing zoning regulations in Indian cities to make it possible for people to Work Remotely. If remote Working becomes a reality, it will be the biggest single learning that the Corona Virus would have provided us with. Ebenezer Howard’s utopian Garden City that never happened, may get a chance to be once again.

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The technology for Remote Working has existed for a long time but for fear of losing control and potential breach of security, organisations have been resisting the change to remote working. However, in order to deal with the lock down due to COVID-19 pandemic, public and private organisations have got their staff to ‘work from home’ and the systems being setup to enable this to happen will remain in place even after the lock down is over. When the economy gets back to normal, some organisations will realise that they can expand their work force without increasing their office space. It is possible that the lessons learnt by employers and employees in this short period will mean a big step in the evolution of the Office of the Future.

There are a few global trends that one needs to look at carefully. With the success of technological development, physical and digital robots have displaced human labour in industrial production and in white collar office work. Gains in human productivity have it possible for each person to work for less time than the standard 5×8 hours per week or simply fewer persons to complete the job. Large corporations choose the former and not the latter. The office jobs are concentrated in commercial developments in large cities, with traffic jams and long commutes.

The deployment of Cloud Technology is a major enabler for people working from home in the lock down. Several new fields of work like digital marketing, telemarketing and free-lance professional work were using remote working from homes and coffee shops even before the lock down. Co-working spaces with shared facilities, offered them an ideal arrangement for remote working.

But public and private organisations are reluctant to use remote working because of security issues of all kinds. Commercial organisations fear loss of control over staff and loss of productivity. Government agencies fear loss of security. Banks and financial institutions are concerned about cyber-crime. Potential loss of intellectual property is a worry for many organisations. In spite of all these difficulties, COVID-19 outbreak has forced organisations to set aside some of their fears and allow to staff to work from home. When the lock down is over, organisations can look back see how they overcame the fears of insecurity and employees can look back to see what they gained or lost in Work from Home.

One thing that has become clear to many is that the home is hardly a suitable place for working from, especially if there is no space available for office work and if more than one person is trying to Work from Home. However, Work from Home means zero commuting time, flexible working hours and even the possibility of part time work sometimes.  

It is my belief that having established the possibility of remote working, it is open to us to see if this can become the standard way of working for most office jobs. The Office of the Future would make it possible for people to walk or cycle to work, be able to get out of the house, socialise and use common office facilities like proper workstations, meeting rooms, conference rooms, cafeteria etc. and services like printing, video conferencing, secretaries, concierge and security. With zero commutes, there would be tremendous environmental benefits of this arrangement. The original Co-working Spaces were meant to do just this but they ended up in commercial areas away from homes, convenient for the employers but not the employees. When the dust settles down over COVID-19, Co-working spaces of a different kind have the potential for becoming the decentralised Office of the Future – a place for Remote Working. They would probably save establishment expenses for organisations but more importantly they would save commuting time and costs for employees. This would be a win-win situation for both employers and employees.

COVID-19 lock down has demonstrated the power and potential of remote working and it has paved the way for a gradual transition to remote working systems. The existing offices will remain but more commercial spaces will probably not be built any time soon. Mega commercial space projects in the making, such as London’s tallest tower and New Delhi’s huge government complex, will be hit by the aftermath of Corona Virus outbreak. A rethink on these projects will hopefully point the way to the decentralised Office of the Future.

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Be practical. Let us withstand our fears with reality. It’s ok to get stressed in difficult times, accept these feelings by being good to ourselves and others.
Encourage our friends and family to keep in touch with each other and remind to look after their physical and mental health.
It’s impossible to ignore the fact about the loss of life caused by Covid-19. However, it’s important to consider the people who are recovering from COVID-19.
Let us take care of our well-being during the coronavirus pandemic.

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I am like to go to the office. Because, Spending time with family is good at the same time I not able to concentrate on work and it may be extended more than office hours sometimes. Little coloration missing, Quick clarification/suggestion giving is missing, and so on.

At the same time, I am hard work time, My sister son asks/pulls me to play with him. So I would like to work in the office.

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The Grass Elephant with golden blades Watercolors and Gold Flakes on handmade paper

The grass used to address Elephant although seem unusual yet have their own significance.

“It is the grass of the field, most frail of all things, that supports all life all the time!”. The green Elephant in my artwork is a wise spirit, with exemplifying power and strength. It represents a new, improved, and positive nature that reconnects us with our own perspectives, past, and future. With the golden tusks, we now have the opportunity to plow through our challenges, resolve our questions, celebrate our being, and journey our path to ‘home’!

These times (COVID-19 pandemic) are sure not easy but have amazingly strengthened us to focus, protect, and recognize the power of love and contentedness.

Inspired from https://nature.disney.com/elephant

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Will you dare to go out and get the hair trimmed if the salon and the barber look like a potential danger to you? Or are you really sure about boarding the next flight in case the services resume the next hour?

But, what if we tell you that a little tweaking in the business model can not only promise 100% safety to the customers but can also help the business owners revive their drowning business within a snap? Yes, that’s right! If the safety needs are assured, people will not only step out of their houses fearlessly but also help in reviving the economy by indulging in buying the services offered.

Let’s Dig into the Root Cause and Its Solution

According to the ‘Needs Pyramid’ by Abraham Maslow, one of the basic needs that people of all strata look for is Safety and Security. If we, the design fraternity, extend our support to model the business of every scale as per this basic need, we can not only create an impact on the economy but also help people in starting a fear-free life very soon.

Since the Needs Pyramid was created keeping an ideal situation in mind, the pyramid was slightly tweaked to bring in more perspective about the current scenario. In case of an ideal situation, the steps of this psychological pyramid would make sense automatically, but here we need to analyze the needs and then formulate the process. Keeping the pandemic in mind, the Safety Needs come first in the pyramid in order to reassure the users about their concerns. The safety need becomes most essential for every individual and so, this automatically becomes a priority while designing the solution. If the safety needs are assured, people will not only step out of their houses fearlessly but also help in reviving the economy by indulging in buying the services offered.

Current Plan VS Proposed Plan for Better Safety

For this to happen, we need a User Safety Centric Design (USCD) framework that can help businesses like the aviation industry, retail shops, essentials like salons, grocery stores, etc, run without hindrances of any sort.

Let’s Understand the USCD Framework Better

While the typical user-centric design framework follows a typical method of Discovering, Describing, Building, Testing, and then Delivering, in the case of markets being affected by COVID-19, one can follow a slightly different framework to deliver designs. This includes understanding the user demographic, their needs, challenges by carrying out the four-step process.

• Research – We can then move on to the process of putting ourselves in the shoes of the users and understanding the common requirements of a common-man, their basic need of safety, and how can we as designers help in designing a framework that’s safe for the users. If you’re able to identify the goals that the users are chasing in terms of regaining the lost normalcy viz a viz shopping and other business-related issues.

• Empathizing – The second step in the process is to empathize with the end-users by putting yourself in their shoes to understand the problems, challenges, and then come up with a solution. This step also includes identifying the touchpoints, service maps, and defining the user personas before chalking out the plan ahead. With the help of user-profiling, we will be able to offer tailor-made solutions to each unique user.

• Create – This level of the process majorly constitutes of the execution plan. You need to come up with a feasible service map that fits the user profile, helps in creating a standard operating process, and aligns with the guidelines provided by the government. The execution strategy needs to benefit not only the customers but also the business owners, whether big or small.

• Feedback – The last part of the process is to get feedback on the design model and understand the scope of improvement on all levels. This process will not just help in crafting a flaw-less model but also help in regaining the shrinking economy, one step at a time. However, there are two types of feedbacks that a user can give based on the experience. One, a user can give immediate feedback after taking the service and share their experiences in order to better the services. Otherwise, the users can submit their online feedback so that people can contribute and validate the suggestions. This can help the business owners to improve their operating process.

With a 4-step design process like the one mentioned above, one can not only create an impeccable design but also facilitate the businesses in running seamlessly. If a user-centric design like this works, it will work like a boon in restoring the business that encircles the daily livelihood of a common man across the country. A design like this promotes cross-selling and up-selling while also helping the customers to indulge in commercial activities and step out of their houses without any doubt about their security.

Role Design Community Can Play in The Process

With an eye for the problem-solving skills and perception towards the point of view, designers can contribute in a great way towards these processes. With a detailed user safety-centric design process, the designers can find solutions to the pertaining problems. With this model, one can easily identify user personas and design tailor-made solutions to cater to the problems.

The designer community can extend their help to revive the economy by contributing to the USCD model as well as by making themselves available as volunteers to educate the business owners with the strategy. If we focus on the user safety centric model, it will automatically help in creating a user-safety ecosystem and help in rebooting the economy engine again.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.

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