Maya Hladisova
Prof Georgia Lindsay
October 3, 2018
Part 2: Background
With the emergence of smartphones and portable laptops, working away from home has become increasingly easier. Coupled with free wifi and delicious beverages, more and more coffee shops have become the ideal place to get work done. People decide to work in coffee shops such as Starbucks not because the space is better suited for meetings and work, but because of added amenities such as coffee and high-speed internet access (Pederson 2010).
Karan Virwani, the director of WeWork, a company valued at 16 billion that provides coworking spaces in order to ‘humanize’ work, said in an interview “We see the changing trend of millennials as well as companies wanting a different kind of workplace rather than the boring and dull office cubicles” (Ganesh 2017). Remote working boosts productivity of workers while reducing operating costs for the company and because of this flexibility in working schedules that many companies provide, meetings can now happen virtually anywhere, most commonly though being cars, hotel rooms, and coffee shops (Remote working, meeting venues and coffee blues in Hong Kong). According to Regus, the global average of people working remotely in business centers is 20% whereas from coffee shops is 13%. Even though business centers are more used than coffee shops as work spaces, coffee shops have been described as better alternatives to libraries because one can drink, watch other people, have conversations and take breaks, and because the atmosphere is overall more welcoming (Waxman 2008). Moreover, coffeeshops don’t have distractions that are found at home or in the office, and can be a cheaper alternative to renting out a remote coworking office space.
However, working from a coffeeshop poses its own problems, not only for those choosing to work there remotely, but for the patrons who are there for reasons other than work. In one coffee shop in Hong Kong, researchers found that college students form the local university used it for work, but other people in the coffeeshop claimed this was an inconvenience for them. Additionally, the lack of privacy, security of belongings, and lack of access to office equipment were the main three drawbacks to working remotely from coffee shops that people cited (China Staff, 2013). Even more so, people often complain that the noise level is too high in coffeeshops to complete any substantial work (Regus 2017).
On the flip side, there is almost no other place you can go to where a couple of dollars guarantees you to stay for however long you want and this combined with an environment where everyone is busy doing something is a huge draw for some (Poole 2002). You can often find a wide range of people doing a wide range of activities in a coffee shop whether it be teens (drinking coffee makes them feel more grown up) or adults, drinking, reading, people watching, or working. Coffee shops cater to teens especially by providing free WiFi, comfortable seating arrangements, sweet drinks and snacks, but a cafe which is ‘too teen-friendly’ could ward off potential adult patrons (Mintel 2015). This dilemma of balance between too inviting and not inviting enough is present also in the furniture design of coffeeshops. In a survey done in several coffeeshops, many patrons complained about the lack of comfortable seating. Customers reported to prefer upholstered furniture and sofas which many of the cafes studied were lacking in but, conversely, certain shop owners emphasized they don’t want too many people lingering and staying all day (Waxman 2008). Design wise, there needs to be a balance found between comfort which attracts patrons and brings people in, but also just enough ‘discomfort’ that allows for table turnover as well.
Even if cafes don’t want to include solely sofas and armchairs, they should include many walls or other built elements as it was observed that people enjoyed sitting in sheltered seats (ie adjacent to a built element). When surveyed, people said that sitting near walls and corners in coffee shops makes them feel protected, and it also allows them to watch other people come and go (Waxman 2008).
The other most important qualities those who were surveyed valued in a coffee shops were cleanliness, appealing aroma, adequate lighting, and an outside view followed by appealing acoustics, appealing music, access to natural light, appealing decor, appealing colors, and visual appeal in general (Waxman 2008). Although tidiness and cleaning is most often attributed as the duties of staff and workers, having a certain finish on the floor and wall, or including furniture fabrics which are easy to clean or hide stains well are easy ways to incorporate cleanliness into the actual design of the coffee shop. Similarly, you might not think of aroma as something that can be controlled much less designed for, but including a ventilation system which keeps the smell of coffee and baked treats inside instead of exchanging it with the outside air will allow for the aroma to linger and attract more customers. Adequate lighting, which was also cited as one of the five most important ‘design’ factors in a coffee shop is a much more concrete idea than cleanliness or aroma, but differs from patron to patron and the setting the coffee shop is in. Presence of natural lighting, reflective finishes, and the type of artificial lighting, coupled with different needs for different aged patrons (older ones might require a higher level of light), means that designers should design coffeeshops on a case by case basis taking into account the needs and setting of the community, rather than taking a one size fits all approach.
Overall, it is important for designers and coffee shop owners to determine which kind of customer they want to cater to, or which region of the coffee shop will hold which purpose. This way, people who came into the cafe to work remotely and who will stay for a while, as well as patrons who came to people watch or solely to drink coffee are properly designed for and will have their needs met.
Citations
Ganesh, Venkatesh. “WeWork bets on millennials for co-working space expansion”
Businessline; Chennai [Chennai]05 July 2017.
Pedersen, Martin C. "The Ad-Hoc Work Space." Metropolis: Architecture Design30, no. 4 (November 2010): 76-82. Accessed October 2, 2018.
Poole, Buzz. "Cafe Culture." Whole Earth, Summer, 2002, 10, https://colorado.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/docview/236831337?accountid=14503.
Regus. "The Workplace Revolution, a Picture of Flexible Working." January 2017. https://www.regus.com/work-us/wp-content/uploads/sites/131/2017/06/GBS-Report.pdf.
“Remote working, meeting venues and coffee blues in Hong Kong”. (2013, Winter). China Staff, 14+. Retrieved from http://bi.galegroup.com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/essentials/article/GALE%7CA381147214?u=coloboulder&sid=summon
Waxman, Lisa. "The Coffee Shop: Social and Physical Factors Influencing Place Attachment." Journal of Interior Design31, no. 3 (June 2, 2008). doi:10.1111/j.1939-1668.2006.tb00530.x.
Yasui, Keita. "A2(S)-5 Shop Layout Design Analysis – Case of Localized Coffee Shops." The Japanese Journal of Ergonomics The Japanese Journal of Ergonomics53, no. Supplement1 (June 1, 2017): 74-77. doi:10.5100/jje.53.s74.