Desky Office Desk Booking Software by Zhiqi Lin is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 Bronze A' Design Award in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Competition Category.
BronzeInterface· 2024
Desky Office Desk Booking Software
by Zhiqi Lin
Client: Zhiqi Lin
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Interface Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #159027The Design
About Desky Office Desk Booking Software
Desky is a workspace management tool designed to enhance the hybrid work model, offering a blend of logistical and social solutions. It provides a strategic weekly overview, allowing employees to plan office visits for optimal collaboration. The desk booking system ensures a personalized workspace, minimizing stress. An interactive map showcases office events, cultivating a vibrant culture. Additionally, schedule tracking promotes team dynamics. This innovative approach addresses the multifaceted challenges of hybrid work, making Desky pivotal for a productive and enjoyable work environment.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Desky Office Desk Booking Software is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Desky Office Desk Booking Software is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Desky Office Desk Booking Software splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
The main principle behind Desky is to enhance the hybrid work experience by making it easier for employees to plan their office visits. The inspiration came from observing the challenges people faced in transitioning back to the office post-pandemic, particularly the lack of motivation and the struggle with commuting. Desky aims to bridge this gap by providing a seamless and engaging way to manage office presence.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
The main focus in designing Desky was to create a user-friendly platform that simplifies the hybrid work model. I wanted to achieve a design that helps employees make informed decisions about their office visits, promotes collaboration, and fosters a connected office culture.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Future plans for Desky include incorporating user feedback to further refine its features, exploring integrations with other workplace tools, and potentially partnering with organizations to implement Desky on a larger scale. The goal is to continuously improve the user experience and expand its reach.
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to workplace flexibility in Desky Office Desk Booking Software addresses a critical post-pandemic challenge - could you elaborate on how your research into hybrid work patterns influenced specific features of the platform?
I began with a simple question: What would make someone actually want to go back to the office? I conducted qualitative research with hybrid employees across industries. The findings revealed that the motivation wasn’t desks—it was people. That insight informed Desky’s core features: colleague visibility, weekly presence planning, and social-aware booking. I designed the tool to not only solve logistical pain points, but to rebuild workplace culture in a decentralized world.
The weekly activity overview in Desky Office Desk Booking Software stands out for its social integration - what inspired you to combine traditional desk booking with colleague tracking, and how does this fusion enhance workplace collaboration?
I’ve always believed that tools should adapt to human behavior—not the other way around. Desky helps users see when teammates are in, so they can sync up naturally. It’s a subtle but powerful way to encourage collaboration. When I serve as a jury member for design awards like IxDA or Communicator Awards, I look for that kind of thoughtful integration—where functionality and empathy are balanced. I took the same standard and applied it to my own work.
Given the rapid development timeline of Desky Office Desk Booking Software from August to September 2023, how did you prioritize and implement user feedback during the iterative design process to ensure optimal functionality?
Because it was a personal project, I had the freedom to move fast and adjust based on real feedback. I ran weekly usability tests and applied what I learned immediately. My experience judging hundreds of entries across awards like WINA gave me a sharp eye for friction points and UX clarity, which helped streamline that process.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Desky combines desk booking with a weekly activity overview for a seamless remote-to-office work transition. Offering visibility into colleagues' schedules and events, simplifies choosing the best days for office attendance. This tool enhances collaboration and productivity by integrating the benefits of in-person interactions with remote work's flexibility, perfectly suiting the modern, flexible workplace's needs and ensuring a cohesive, efficient environment in the hybrid era.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The platform is accessible via web and mobile devices, optimized for screens ranging from 360 x 640 pixels (mobile) to 1920 x 1080 pixels (desktop), ensuring a responsive, user-friendly experience across devices. It supports major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) for broad accessibility
- Tags
- Hybrid Work Solution, Desk Booking System, Workplace Collaboration, User-Centered Design, Productivity Tool, User Experience Design, UI Design, UX Design, Figma, Web Design
- Production Technology
- Desky's design was primarily realized through Figma, leveraging its collaborative design capabilities to create a user-centric interface. Figma facilitated iterative design processes, allowing for real-time feedback and adjustments.
- Design Challenge
- The primary challenge was distinguishing Desky from existing desk booking solutions. Overcoming this required innovative features like colleague tracking and interactive maps. Internal factors included aligning with modern work trends, while external factors involved balancing technological capabilities and user needs. Differentiating through user-centric design and unique features helped Desky stand out in a crowded market.
- Research
- The research comprised market analysis, user interviews, and competitor analysis, uncovering a rising demand for hybrid work solutions and employee challenges in office planning. Iterative usability testing refined Desky's design, ensuring it effectively addresses workplace needs, fosters productivity, and promotes flexible work arrangements, all while prioritizing user-centric solutions.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by the post-pandemic shift to hybrid work, I noticed the dilemma workers faced in choosing between the office and home. Recognizing the value of in-office collaboration and the convenience of working from home, I developed Desky. This tool is designed to help employees balance the benefits of in-office interaction with the flexibility of remote work, enabling them to make informed decisions on where to work each day, thus enhancing productivity and workplace satisfaction.
- Project Duration
- The project started in August 2023 in Seattle, United States and finished in September 2023.
- Operation Flow
- Upon logging in, users view a dashboard displaying weekly office activities and desk availability.
They can swiftly book a desk for a specific day or set up recurring bookings for regular office visits. Users can also see when their favorite colleagues are coming in by 'starring' them for easy tracking. There's also an interactive map to explore, showing where they can find a spot to sit or join in on office events. - Team Members
- Zhiqi Lin
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Laptop Mock-up Organization Ls.Graphic, Mac Studio and Macbook Pro 16, 2023
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