為工作環境設計：賦予其情感與熟悉的溝通

Abstract

社會結構急遽變遷，而在辦公環境裡工作的人們，所面對的則是快速發展的資訊科技和工作方式。台灣是亞洲平均工作時數較長的一個區域，隨著科技進步，原本面對面的交談，已逐漸被網際網路等新興媒體所取代。工作上溝通的方式改變了，同事間實際的互動逐漸減少，而人際關係也較過去薄弱。即使人們在同樣的環境裡一起工作，也因為使用、依賴不同的溝通媒體，而出現孤立或是分群的問題。日常的溝通從真實的世界轉向虛擬的資訊空間中發展。 同事們越來越不熟悉彼此，如何增進他們的人際關係變成一個重要的課題。也因此，對於長時間相處、一起工作的人們而言，提供一個具體並且感性，充斥著親密感、彼此存在感的工作環境是相當重要的。 本研究中，實地訪查的對象將是科技公司研發部門裡的工程師，他們負責開發新的科技製程或是軟體程式撰寫。他們目前所面臨的溝通問題，以及同事們在溝通中所在乎的一些細微感覺和需要，將由訪談和探針日誌法獲得。在了解其辦公室文化之後，不同領域專家和先前受訪的工程師將一起參與一個工作坊。就如何增進人際關係此一議題，討論各種潛在的解決辦法。並考慮如何適當的運用新興科技，來擴充人們在溝通中的知覺向度。隨著工作坊發展出來的各種概念，本研究將提出數種有著熟悉感介面的原型，除了作為聯繫人們資訊溝通的媒體，亦試圖去增進同事之間較感性的互動。隨後，再經由場域測試，評估設計概念是否符合人們在工作環境中的需求。 與他人的互動和情感聯繫使得人們感到寬慰和滿足，也使得人們的生活更有意義和完整。藉由對溝通脈絡深入的了解，若能在群體間傳遞彼此的存在感，似乎能使得人們彼此更為親密；而本研究所發展的溝通媒體，亦刺激了同事彼此之間更多的人際互動，進而探討人們的默契和不同感知的科技運用。

The structures of community are acutely changing, and people in an office environment face the rapid development of information technology and workflows. In Taiwan, a region with the longest working hours in Asia, social interactions between colleagues are gradually disappearing since most of the communications related to work is changing from in-person conversation to mediated e-mail through the Internet. This makes people in the same working environment either closely grouped or further isolated by choosing different web-based communication media. By degrees the daily communications take place in the virtual information space, rather than in a real world. For the colleagues become by and by estranged from each other, how to promote their relationship is significant. Therefore, creating an embodied office environment with sense of emotional presence, intimacy, or closeness is definitely essential to people who work long hours together. In this research, the field of study focuses on the Research & Development department, the engineers who explore and develop new processing technologies or system programs in Taiwan’s high-tech companies. The communicating situations people are confronted with and the subtle senses or inherent needs in the social interactions between those colleagues sharing the same working place and communication channel are attained by dyad interviews and probe diaries. After investigating those office cultures, a workshop is held with numerous engineers and designers from different disciplines, including industrial design, computer science and information engineering, mechanical engineering, visual communication. Those experts and the informants of earlier interviews have discussed the potential solution to enhance the interpersonal relationship in the working environment and consider a better application of emerging technology to broaden the directions of perception in communication. With the ideas out of the workshop, prototypes as communication installations with intimate and emotional interface are developed for various working space not only to mediate people’s informational communication but to evoke the emotional contact between colleagues. Then, through field trial and reviewing processes, design concepts to meet the needs of connecting people in the same office are explored. The interactions and relationships with others are expected to make people relieved and satisfied, as well as make peoples’ life meaningful and fulfilling. Through profound comprehension of the communication context, to convey an awareness of the presence of the community would connect them closely. In addition to that, the communication media developed in this research could also be expanded to increase the social interactions between people working together, and the application of technology to make people attuned to their colleagues in varies sense will also be discussed.