People are returning to offices, or at least to some sort of hybrid work arrangements, but the global events of the past two years have made people more acutely aware of their well-being even when working at the office. It’s not just an issue for Work From Home workers. They have also been a regular occurrence even before the pandemic hit, and people, including managers, have been trying to fight those for years. With their constant notifications and tempting temptation to look at them occasionally to treat FOMO, smartphones have been both essential and harmful to the workplace. We can harness technology’s power to solve these problems and promote digital best practices at work.
Designer: Pranjal Uday
There are many elements in an office environment that can cause a dip in our well-being, but smartphones are often at the root of many of those. In addition to the distractions they push in our way, they also tempt most of us to swipe our break time away on social media or even just idle browsing. We could just leave our phones in a drawer or on our desks when we walk away to take a break, but some fear they’d miss truly important work calls because of that.
Other people in the office offer both distraction and comfort, depending on when they actually try to connect with you. We are so addicted to our smartphones that we spend a lot of our breaks on them. This makes it difficult for us to make meaningful connections with others in the office. In order to hit two birds with one stone, a wireless charging dock concept tries to give you more time away from your phone by making you worry less about it.
There are plenty of wireless charging docks in the market today, and while they all perform as advertised, they don’t offer more. These docks could be multifunctional in an office setting. For example, Less can charge your phone while you’re away and also keep it from getting too hot. It has flashing lights and vibrating alarms that remind you when your phone is out of the dock. You can stop the timer by putting the phone back in the dock.
There’s also a “Brick” accessory that you can pull out of the dock and take with you when you walk away from your desk. Although it appears to be a remote control for your computer, this is actually a WiFi phone. It can receive notifications and calls even when you aren’t there. Of course, it’s up to you to decide which calls and notifications to let through in order to filter only the most important people.
Last but not least, Less has a projector that shines a light informing people around you that you’re free for a “social break.” Alternatively, the projector could also be used to signal that you shouldn’t be disturbed, effectively keeping people away from you unless absolutely necessary. While primarily designed for an office scenario, it’s not hard to imagine how this kind of phone dock can also be useful at home, especially for WFH setups that are exposed for everyone at home to see.
