RoomWizard for Steelcase
A device to connect and manage meeting rooms in real-time
The first product in Steelcase’s Wizard Web Signs family of information appliances, RoomWizard is a web-accessible touch-screen display that provides real-time status of shared meeting rooms, simplifying the process of reserving and managing those spaces. All of a company’s RoomWizards, each connected to a single room, are managed from a single source to avoid the conflicts and interruptions that commonly occur in the workplace.
Each RoomWizard is physically located on a wall outside a meeting room and connected to the organization’s network. By visiting a single corporate website, people can reserve a space or discover the name of an existing meeting’s leader or topic. Using the touch-screen interface, people can grab an unused conference room at the last minute without being disturbed, and the new reservation is immediately visible on the website. In addition, the RoomWizard features red and green lights that allow users to see the status of a room at a glance.
The RoomWizard is a result of a collaboration between Steelcase, IDEO, and the Appliance Studio, a UK-based firm that develops technology for information appliances. IDEO created a simple interface for both the device’s six-and-a-half-inch display and for the scheduling website, meant to appeal both to first-time users and to those technologically savvy early adopters, as well as to be easily maintained by an organization’s technology managers. The device’s physical form is designed to be universal in order to blend into corporate architecture.
Project date: 2000
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