What You Need to Know about Multi-Sensory Office Design

Companies around the world are taking steps to humanize the workplace through offering a sensory experience, using the power of multi-sensory design to engage and inspire workers. Employee wellbeing has been proven to significantly impact performance and productivity, so employers are shifting their focus to the health and happiness of their workers. Office design is just the first step.

Workplaces need to be consumer-centric and focus on the usability and comfortability of the space. Multi-sensory design engages all five senses and transforms spaces to support our experience at work. Sight often takes precedence in architecture and design, but we respond to all senses: sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. Multi-sensory design benefits employee and employer alike; by taking into account the human experience, designers can increase the desirability of a workplace. Workers like their offices to feel positive and in turn, work better.

Italian firm Il Prisma, a Steelcase distributor, researched how the five senses affect people in the office. Their findings were that sensorial design improves concentration and learning. Purposeful multi-sensory design can also create cohesivity and a brand-friendly space that supports your company culture and customer experience.