A flexible tool for a flexible office

Product design is about more than just sticking a brand logo on your latest addition. 

When creating a new feature, the main design questions revolve around how to make that thing look good, feel simple and work well. 

This is especially important to us, at Robin, because we create tools with people and offices in mind. Returning to the office, adjusting to flexible work, dealing with new variants - workplaces are under enough stress as it is, we’re here to minimize some of those headaches. 

No more static offices, no more static office management

Today, employees are choosing for themselves when and how to come into the office. For workplaces leaders, this requires flexibility and a willingness to iterate on approaches that might not be working.

And the change doesn’t stop there. Not only has when we come into the office changed but how we use the office is evolving too. Static floor plans are becoming a thing of the past. Not only do admins have to adapt to these changes, but they also have to communicate them to their company and ensure continued buy-in.

Robin has launched an upgraded layout tool to address this new set of needs. Now it’s even easier to tweak, update and manage your office map to meet the ever-evolving needs of a hybrid workforce. Let’s take a closer look!

Add and manage spaces with ease (+speed)

Change happens fast. We’ve seen it with Delta and now Omicron. But just because it’s chaos outside your office doesn’t mean office management should be. 

To help administrators update or create floor plans as fast as possible we’ve made adding spaces as simple as a tap. Robin will detect the underlying map and use it to create the space’s outline. This makes filling out the map fun and quick.

Our customers told us that configuring spaces in Robin was a bit taxing. So we listened and updated accordingly. Now space configuration can be set without leaving the layout tool. You can configure policies for spaces and even attach a calendar or room display.

Quickly add desks and other points of interest with stamps

Who said layout tools couldn’t be fun? 

After hearing from our customers that desk presets have been very useful for office management, we started to think about how to capitalize on that feature. We wanted to reduce the amount of repetitive work involved with updating a map.

So we worked on making these presets easier to place on the maps. The solution? Treating them like stamps. Simply select a preset and stamp it as many times as necessary. The same thing goes for placing points of interest on your map, reducing the amount of repetitive work involved with updating a map.

Locate office resources with a directory

When you haven’t been to the office in a few months, simple things like finding the office printer can be a major headache. We heard from our client base that, on dense floor plans, it’s tough to find the resource they want to modify.

In addition to making it easier to add and manage resources, we saw an opportunity to improve finding them. Now, with the office directory each resource is categorized and alphabetized for easy discovery.

Help employees learn how to use the office again

Our customers (and prospects) are going through a big change right now. We know the return-to-office can be a difficult shift for teams, so we wanted to make the workplace a bit easier to digest. 

When you take a more flexible approach to seating, you upend the old familiarity of where different groups sit or the locations of quiet zones. To address this, we made it simple to define areas of the office in Robin. 

Work areas can be created from single or multiple desk groups to help employees find the best place to work for their needs that day. On top of that, we collect utilization data around how different work areas are used to inform future map tweaks.

Tools made with workplace leaders in mind

Let’s give credit where credit is due: Workplace leaders are the undisputed MVPs of the office in 2021. 

From massive shifts in plans to reimagining workspaces to suit a new way of working, the curveballs keep coming. Robin is here to help make your life easier. 

We’re excited to see how these upgrades help keep your office map up-to-date. 

Learn more about the layout tool in the Robin Help Center.