Office Layout For Developers
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
I've never been subjected to a cube farm, nor have I ever had a private office (Though there was that last month at my old job, when I was the only one left in the office and was getting laid off at the end of the month)... In this industry, everyone works on trading desks. Long, straight desks with people spaced out along them. No privacy at all. That layout (in the link) does kinda look nice, but if I was going to move to an actual software development shop (As opposed to hedge funds), I think I'd want an open-plan office so I could take part in all of that cube warfare stuff I've only read about :)
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
The best layout I ever worked in, was a big room with desks, no walls, so people could talk and see each other, and spacious enough to have room for regular Nerf gun wars.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
I agree. However, many programmers don't, and in fact refuse working in an open space office.
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
My current "office" is a 12'x20' cubicle with 6' glass & wood walls, a nice wrap around desk with one of those ergonomic chairs. I also have a stand up desk with a treadmill, and 2 monitors at each desk. There are plenty of windows for good light, and white noise generators are installed in the ceiling every 10' or so to cut down on distractions. The 2nd floor balcony and break room both have great views, and when it is nice I can take my laptop out and work there. Plus free coffee, soda, etc. Also, the meeting room and hallways, etc. are covered with art, which is nice to look at, but makes me nervous because I couldn't afford to pay damages if I bumped into it.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
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My current "office" is a 12'x20' cubicle with 6' glass & wood walls, a nice wrap around desk with one of those ergonomic chairs. I also have a stand up desk with a treadmill, and 2 monitors at each desk. There are plenty of windows for good light, and white noise generators are installed in the ceiling every 10' or so to cut down on distractions. The 2nd floor balcony and break room both have great views, and when it is nice I can take my laptop out and work there. Plus free coffee, soda, etc. Also, the meeting room and hallways, etc. are covered with art, which is nice to look at, but makes me nervous because I couldn't afford to pay damages if I bumped into it.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
Andy Brummer wrote:
white noise generators
Do they work? If yes what brand are you using. Some times I go to client sites and I have to work in their noisy cubicles. I wonder whether this is what I need to look at.
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My current "office" is a 12'x20' cubicle with 6' glass & wood walls, a nice wrap around desk with one of those ergonomic chairs. I also have a stand up desk with a treadmill, and 2 monitors at each desk. There are plenty of windows for good light, and white noise generators are installed in the ceiling every 10' or so to cut down on distractions. The 2nd floor balcony and break room both have great views, and when it is nice I can take my laptop out and work there. Plus free coffee, soda, etc. Also, the meeting room and hallways, etc. are covered with art, which is nice to look at, but makes me nervous because I couldn't afford to pay damages if I bumped into it.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
So, how does it feel to be 'kept'? :-D
Software Zen:
delete this; -
AspDotNetDev wrote:
I rather liked working from home
Well that is there. But the thing I found is that developers need to interact at least a few times at least during a new product development.
No reason you can't bring a few of those things to the office (like a shower and nap room). Well, no reason aside from cost. :)
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
What is the best office layout you have worked in?
Back in the late 90s - everyone had a reasonable sized cubicle whihc offered some privacy if needed but was open enough that you could chat with your neighbours. Howver, I don't really care as long as I have enough space for a keyboard and monitors; slap the earphones in and work.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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The best layout I ever worked in, was a big room with desks, no walls, so people could talk and see each other, and spacious enough to have room for regular Nerf gun wars.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone.
I fail to see a meaningful difference between large cubes with full height walls (and desks placed to avoid shoulder surfing by passers by) and offices beyond the construction costs involved.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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The best layout I ever worked in, was a big room with desks, no walls, so people could talk and see each other, and spacious enough to have room for regular Nerf gun wars.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
The lab for one of my projects was like that, the collective goof off potential made it really hard for me to keep productive. I don't think I'd ever voluntarily take a job where I had to spend most of my time in an open office. X| X| X|
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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So, how does it feel to be 'kept'? :-D
Software Zen:
delete this;Pretty damn good actually. :laugh:
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
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Andy Brummer wrote:
white noise generators
Do they work? If yes what brand are you using. Some times I go to client sites and I have to work in their noisy cubicles. I wonder whether this is what I need to look at.
It masks a regular conversation happening in the cube next to me, but I don't think it would make a difference if things were actually loud. This is a full building system with hundreds of speakers, so I don't even know where to begin with comparing it to the individual models.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
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Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone.
I fail to see a meaningful difference between large cubes with full height walls (and desks placed to avoid shoulder surfing by passers by) and offices beyond the construction costs involved.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
Dan Neely wrote:
between large cubes with full height walls
I have never seen those so I have no idea.
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
A couple of things I've come across which I really liked: Natural light. I don't process light as efficiently as the next person, and natural light seems to help as opposed to brighter overhead/desk lighting. White boards. At one job, we had an entire meeting room paneled with white boards. We could leave a few different projects' sketches up at the same time. This was nice when we needed to get away from some design for a while, we didn't have to worry about the next group wiping out our ideas. In terms of the open office thing, I'm on the fence about that. It can be very distracting, and you can get dragged into the side conversations, just because you cannot help but overhear. On the other hand, it's great (when you have receptive co-workers), to just be able to ask a question when you're hung up on one particular aspect, or you want to run an idea by someone. I think this is a topic where you really need to poll your team before setting your ideas in motion. See what they think would be helpful for them specifically, and endeavor to meet that where it's reasonable. For example, free lunch everyday -> not reasonable. Free beer on Fridays -> reasonable.
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Dan Neely wrote:
between large cubes with full height walls
I have never seen those so I have no idea.
In my previous company it was arranged like this and I really like it. High, semi-transparent walls up to the celling with the third wall missing/those from the windows' side/. It was nice, but the company founder was a developer so hew new what the programmers need. We also had a good NVidia VGA cards on our machines and the new developer’s first task was to try to improve our JAVA web application for scoring and statistics from multiplayer DOOM and Unreal Tournament every day half-hour sessions.
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Dan Neely wrote:
between large cubes with full height walls
I have never seen those so I have no idea.
Minion level cubes here range from 8x8 to 8x10 to 10x10; depending on how long ago they were built, and excepting secretaries and other similar positions the cube walls are either around 5'8" or 6'6". The shorter variety top out at eye level for me; the taller ones are almost impossible for anyone to look over from outside. The intended primary work area is on the outside wall adjacent to the entrance so casual snooping isn't possible.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
When it's time for some heads-down coding, I like to be able to turn the lights off. I can't stand short- or no-wall cubes because when I see movement in my peripheral, I look up involuntarily.
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The best layout I ever worked in, was a big room with desks, no walls, so people could talk and see each other, and spacious enough to have room for regular Nerf gun wars.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
I never worked in such environment. My environment is made of cubicules, but they are short in height (about one meter high) so I can see everyone, but just their heads and that was already distracting sometimes (specially when there was one girl around). How distracting was your environment?
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
Love this thread! I've had some pretty crummy office environments and one really good one. I'm currently sitting in a ridiculous workspace. We've got cubes about 4 feet wide and 6 feet deep. Running along the left of the cube is a desk about 18" deep, which leaves about 36" for an office chair and me. I can deal with the space. That's not a problem. The problem is noise. It's hard to get your head down, thinking deep into how to solve a complex coding challenge when all of the sudden my ears are pierced with someone scheduling a haircut for their dog, or the cellphone chirping as they receive a text message. Every sneeze or cough can break my concentration. The problem here might be that most of the time you can hear a pin drop. I think if there were more people making more noise, it would almost be easier. The best benchmark I can think of is how far away you can hear a telephone conversation. I don't need to hear a telephone conversation 30 feet away. If someone next to me is on the phone, I can understand that. Not much you can do when we're all sandwiched in here.
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I have to think about this one now. Our company purchased a foreclosed building for a bargain and now we have to layout offices and work areas. I already saw Joel's office layout:- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html[^] Are there any better ideas? Few things I know from my experience:- 1. No cubicles - cubicles in my opinion cause big loss in productivity. 2. Quiet offices so that devs can spend some time alone. 3. An area where multiple devs and testers can work together and collaborate on a single project. What is the best office layout you have worked in? Any ideas/suggestions?
Many of these ideas are in my current space. We rent an old building's second floor, about 1200 sq. ft. for five programmers/systems engineers. Each of us has a private office; however, only three offices have windows to the outside. To me, having outside natural light is extremely important because I really enjoy being outside. (I have spent many days running my laptop off my truck's inverter sitting beside the local river working with my 1m^2 fold-up table full of notebooks and drawings. It's a bit like Mark Twain's octagon work space without the walls.) The biggest drawback to the current space that would make things better is that our conference room is also the kitchen area. We do not have a curtain or bi-fold doors on the kitchen area. Having a more formal meeting space is nice when talking to new customers and making a good impression. Also, think about storage for all those little things like paper products, recycling bins, cleaning supplies, empty packaging, etc. We don't have much storage space here and it does create some inconveniences. If you work at home, you like to be outside, and you have decent views from you property, consider putting up a green house so that you have views on all sides. I haven't tried this, but I imagine that it would allow me to work outside into the winter months and in lousy weather.
Drew -- A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.