More than esthetics: Incorporating experiential design in the workplace

Think about the different types of work environments you’ve experienced throughout your career. Some places are so vibrant you walk in feeling inspired, ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work right away. While other spaces leave you constantly reaching for the coffee pot or snack drawer just so you have enough fuel to get through the day. What makes the difference? It’s all about how the space is designed.

Experiential design (XD) doesn’t just bring a look to a professional environment to create a wow moment—it shapes how people feel, move throughout the space, and perform. But when XD is overlooked, the opposite can happen. Productivity diminishes, the culture suffers, loyalty crumbles, and costs—due to some makeshift solutions—can start to climb.

To better understand the significant value of XD, here’s a closer look at what’s at stake without it.

Culture
How stale environments create friction
People spend most of the hours in the day at work (an estimated 90,000 hours over a lifetime). That’s a lot of time, so it’s important for workplaces to be enjoyable and authentic reflections of the brand. XD is intended to do just that—inspire, engage, and encourage meaningful conversations among employees, clients, and visitors. However, if it’s not considered, it creates stale environments that leave people feeling disengaged and unmotivated. 

The result? Environments become nothing more than isolating working shells, leading to risks involved with attracting and retaining top talent. That’s a problem, because replacing employees can add up and directly impact the bottom line—costing companies an average of  50 to 200% of their annual salary (SHRM). 

Meanwhile, companies with an intentional, strong employee engagement—a core part of XD—report up to 51% lower turnover (Gallup).

For Gen Z and Millennials especially, work environments matter more than ever. They look for spaces that reflect company values, foster collaboration, and support well-being. It’s what builds trust, an element paramount to your internal team. Therefore, the brand voice and personality shouldn’t live only in marketing efforts—it should also be reflected within the walls of your own workspace. 

Consider these additional factors when it comes to making thoughtful design decisions for morale: 

• If the office lobby is designed to impress clients but the workspace is sterile and uninspiring, this can send mixed messages about company values.
• When a financial services firm emphasizes transparency and trust in its marketing but features a maze-like, closed-off space, the design can undermine that message.
• If a company values innovation and collaboration but the team works in closed-off cubicles, the design contradicts the company’s purpose and mission.

Productivity
The risks of a distracting work environment
If the physical layout of a space is not designed holistically, it creates visual clutter. Not only is this messy, but it is also distracting. For example, when operational equipment, excessive signage, or non-branded visuals are displayed, they tend to create unnecessary distractions.

When environmental decisions are made in silos like these, it becomes difficult to create a shared vision in the space. Instead of telling one cohesive brand story, the space sends mixed messages about the company’s values. New hires specifically often struggle to understand the “why” and what the organization stands for in its environment,  making it difficult to work efficiently and effectively.

Help clear the clutter by considering design decisions that will help your team work at their best.

• Less IS more. Avoid unnecessary wall visuals that don’t directly support the brand’s visual strategy.
• Integrate functional elements intentionally. Position printers, hospitality stations, and personal storage cabinetry in purposeful locations to minimize distraction.
• Curate branded visuals thoughtfully. Align wall branding with those in the space to create cohesion.
• Engage the senses. Integrate sensory elements such as ambient music and scents to prevent unwanted distractions.
• Design with light in mind. Use lighting to support each space’s function while considering the influence of natural light throughout the day.

Costs
The price of not investing in good design 
It may be easy to only consider XD as a nice-to-have, but ignoring it usually results in piled-up expenses for companies in the long run. Because when the experience doesn’t live up to the brand promise, people notice and start to get frustrated. Then this gap tends to get filled with rushed, costly workarounds that require more effort that could have been avoided in the first place. 

Skipping XD also results in constant “band-aid” solutions, leading to adding signs haphazardly, updating messaging that doesn't resonate with larger themes, rearranging furniture, or redesigning a space only after problems surface.

Possible results could be higher costs, future changes, wasted resources, and even disruption to daily operations, reducing team productivity.

The bottom line: Don’t invest in multiple rounds of office remodels instead of designing a flexible, future-proof environment up-front. People should be able to walk into your business and understand your products and services. An XD expert can think long-term about what your space will need in the future, based on your company’s mission, brand voice, and goals.

Ready to get started and use experience to drive your innovation and revenue?

Check out other businesses like yours that have transformed their employee experience with us using a strategic, personalized design approach.

Then let’s chat! Our team will collaborate with you and guide you through every step of this exciting process.