Designing an office where your employees can be productive and stimulated with good opportunities for reprieve…wouldn’t all employers love to maximize these principals. We found some exciting and innovative solutions. Take a look. Do you think this would help increase your productivity? Your state of mind? Your energy at work?

Can we just talk for a moment about the treadmill desk above?! You’re thinking, “There is no way that you can multi-task like that.” But we all tried it. Walking and typing works. Probably not any inclines or speed races for this work station but shaking out your legs and getting in a bit of exercise sounds great. Lifespan is the company that manufactures this particular treadmill/desk. One suggestion that we found particularly ingenious was placing these in an open work area where employees might hop on for a conference call or for a period of the day. This enables employers to serve more employees with fewer stations.

Too bad we just redid the MDI offices. With the next office motivator, we would definitely need the treadmill. Thanks Interface for the cotton candy pick me up.

Next up, we have a design from the same guy who does Keen Footwear. That’s right, one of the most popular outdoor activity shoes somehow came from the same creative mind as this desk. Martin Keen created/founded Focal Upright Furniture and came up with this workstation prototype in his barn office where he rigged a tractor seat into a sit/stand/lean stool.

They are currently working on a freestanding sit/lean/stand stool that can float around and make any spot a functional workstation. PS. That is Mr. Keen himself in the picture with Alexis.

The desk has an elevated cushy foot pad and stick-like stool that you lean on. It is really more like standing than sitting. The design keeps your back more in line.

The Massuad Lounge Chair with Canopy by Coalesse…the top comes down like a salon hair dryer.  It provides a private, quiet zone for a phone call or a nap.  How wonderful!  You can even dock your iPhone into the helmet.  What a personal, private experience.

Conference table or ping pong table? That is for you to decide.  This conference table is designed as a high low table. This makes it suitable for a sitting meeting or a standing meeting. Chairs or barstools. Just add a ping pong net and you can blow off some steam in between meetings.

Commercial Design is getting more and more versatile. We first saw this design at High Point in April. We thought it would be great for a client who wanted to have a multipurpose dining room and who didn’t want the traditional dedicated dining room. Here, in a commercial design setting, the table is lunch room, conference room and break room.

The products above are just some that we found to be particularly innovative and interesting. It really makes you think about how product design affects the user. We are inspired to think about this in both commercial and residential design.