NYC is a laboratory for architecture and design; we even have famous streets and neighborhoods that are overachievers. Everywhere you go, whatever business you walk into, your “at rest” sensory neurons are jolted into activation by the full spectrum of design stimuli that forces impulses and emotions to stand at attention. Business’ in this overachiever city use a cocktail of emotion-pulling design tools to sustain their branding, services and, in truth, high rents.
We, as consumers and end users are intoxicated with well-planned design ranging from vibrant and colorful, to serene and earthy to the matriarchs of elegance, modernism and cutting edge. Each, a connoisseur at pulling from within you a comfortably to sign on, sign up and become their coveted customer. It may sound negative, but it really is a very intelligent means to engage large, diverse groups and for the end user or the customer, a very satisfying interaction when we feel we’ve spent our money somewhere worthy and sophisticated and on someone offering a valuable service that is reliable and consistent. And…. here’s the most amazing part; at this level, we’ve only interacted with the branding of said business - the visual aesthetic of what they wish to sell to you. Powerful right? But always remember, it works both ways. It could make you stay and become a consumer, or turn around, walk out and never return.
So, are medical and veterinary offices any different? Not at all, moreover, they are held to a much higher standard than any other business type and open to fast and furious judgement. Why? Medical offices, whether for us or our best furry friend is about CARE! That word is very significant. Its meaning is in full force in this regard.
Medical spaces, CARE spaces are usually anxiety provoking on many levels and we as humans have the innate need to feel safe, cared for and need to answer our internal dialogue questions even before we see any doctor type person. So, what is that dialogue? Well, in short, “am I comfortable here”, “is my well-being safe”, “is my pet getting the best care in this place”? Realize that these questions are answered the minute that threshold is crossed and our eyes begin to roam, about a 4-minute transaction with no human interaction required.
We automatically translate the type of care we are about to receive through the design the waiting/reception is offering or lack thereof. We’ve already decided if we will return for a second visit. Again, powerful, right? Again, all this internal deducing is just our interaction with the establishments branding and how they’ve chosen to communicate it or not. If we, in any way, conclude that what we are seeing or feeling will not result in our CARE, we are just out.
If your veterinarian’s waiting room consists of a worn hard wood bench below a drafty cold storefront window, cracking floor tile, 10-year-old wall tile that has discoloring grout lines, bad lighting and a reception desk that isn’t even equipped to handle the attendants behind it, we translate that into:
A disorganized, chaotic and prone to mistakes business that is not reliable enough to CARE for us or our best friend when they need CARE the most
or beg the internal questions:
“If this is a worthy veterinarian with a thriving client base, why aren’t they investing in a better presentation of their space and practice for their clients”?
“If the waiting room looks like this, what are the real medical spaces like”?
It is not a long leap to conclude that if a business, medical or otherwise, wishes to be successful in building a solid client base and even invite walk-in customers, their surefire approach is through design; the visual expression of their branding. Your neighborhood veterinary office does to have to equate to the appointment of the Plaza Hotel, but should exemplify a level of sophistication that communicates the high level of service of that practice.
OK, got it, but why, if I recall, are most medical offices outdated and honestly austere?
Well, with my understanding of the function of medical offices, vet offices too, their utmost priority is privacy and confidentiality of the patient once in the medical portion of the office; the exam and consult spaces. Doctors are bound by strict practice rules; projecting them into the physical space of their practice. There could be many other reasons, but I am pulling from my direct programming questions when designing for healthcare professionals. Not knowing any other way to achieve privacy, acoustics and confidentiality, medical offices end up exactly the way most of us recall; compartmentalized, closed, austere, lost in time and highly controlled.
Office space, back in the day, was suffering from the same symptom, but it never effected the client facing spaces – they always got that right and most larger companies understood their brand and how to expose it. What happened beyond the beautiful reception area was another story. But with medical/veterinary offices, the symptom creeped into every space; leaving eternal open wounds because the majority of spaces are client facing! And…this is what we see today.
In our many case studies of medical and veterinary offices, we’ve broken down and identified the weak links. So, what have we to offer?
1. Transparency/acoustics – Trust, Safe, Flowing, New…
a. The market is blessed with very sophisticated acoustic solutions that can be both closed, fully transparent or a combination of both. To our studio, this is a “make or break” element when taking into account the culture and environment of any space where privacy and confidentially are a requisite of the function. These applications were the catalyst that transformed office space from closed and dingy to open, glamorous and highly productive. Our tests using such a system in a medical or veterinary space has put our design approach on an exciting level and our client’s expectations out of the box.
2. Aesthetic - visual expression of branding – A Must Must Have…
a. In our basic design approach to medical and veterinary spaces, we assist our client in branding definition and expression if it is a weak link in their existing practice or hasn’t yet been established in a new practice. From here we begin testing solutions for both the space and method of branding, but insist that it is the first item on the long list of design tasks.
3. Non-traditional paradigms – no more cookie cutter design of an old model – The Change…
a. This, we don’t think needs further thought. We are going new or going home!!