The development of user guides for occupants is something that is frequently overlooked by developers of new academic workspaces. It is often assumed that occupants will intuitively know how to use and get the most out of their new working environment. This assumption is usually flawed and is particularly problematic when the design of the new workspace is innovative or represents a departure from the workspace occupied previously.

Whilst office environments do offer a degree of affordance to occupants,  new types of workspaces usually require new ways of working and the adoption of new technologies. Some workspaces are specifically designed to encourage particular behaviours, such as collaboration and team-working. User guides are therefore an excellent way of helping occupants to understand the principles behind the design of their workspace.

Workspace user guides should be developed as part of, and not as a substitute for, a robust user engagement and change management process – simply giving people a guide and expecting them to adapt to the new space is unlikely to work. It can be particularly helpful to involve user groups in the design and writing of user guides, so as to ensure that their contents reflect the needs of the people that will be occupying the workspace.

User guides might comprise a range of information, including guidance on:

They might also include more general contextual information, such as the history of the site and the values of the organisation.