Context

Open offices, especially for people working with complex tasks.

Design concept

Context switching is very costly from a cognitive point of view, however especially in open office settings, it is hard to know when someone is in the middle of something or if it’s OK to ask them questions. Here is an indicator light, showing if someone can be disturbed or not.  The light can show different colours indicating “busyness level”. It can either be controlled manually or linked to applications on your computer.

Experiential qualities and related concepts

Calm, fluency, overview, peripheral awareness, sociality, visibility.

Augmentation modality

Visual.

Technical options

USB connection, Bluetooth, programmable multicoloured LED lights.

Prototyping techniques

Wizard of Oz.

Source

Kickstarter in 2015. Now available from Luxafor.