With the rise of the open office has come the rise of what I’ll call the open office symphony: the consistent click-clack of a colleague who types a little bit too aggressively, the boisterous yammer of loud talkers, and intermittent laughs about something on Slack or Twitter or YouTube.
While I’m sure most of your co-workers are respectful and only err in their ways momentarily (hey, I’m guilty of the aforementioned offenses myself), the din can make it difficult not just to focus, but also to hold meetings and collaborate. But the right design and problem-solving products can help. We spoke to four architects at firms that have designed offices for HBO, Uber, LinkedIn, and Nike about their tricks of the trade.