

Now this is an environment for development - adriand
http://www.thewonderfactory.com/aboutUs/our_space.php

======
moe
I don't know. Could be due to the special lighting or the extra-high-gloss-
cleaning for the photoshoot - but that slideshow left a very cold and
unpersonal impression on me.

Like a modern hotel; definitely stylish, but not really a place I could
imagine feeling at home (which is the feeling I need to be most creative).

~~~
papersmith
I think they tried very hard to make the place look organic, but you if look
carefully everything just seems contrived. I think it's sort of the uncanny
valley of interior decoration, which I see quite often these days.

It probably serves more as a function to impress clients than to actually
inspire creativity.

If I were them I would've let the employees decorate their own spaces.
Could've saved a bunch of money that way. I would've also chose a house with
garden over Manhattan, but then again I don't run a consulting company.

------
slapshot
Holy overhead, batman! NYC rents are absurd as it is. Unless they got a great
deal then they are chewing up major funds just on a place to sit.

~~~
clistctrl
They also have some of the most prestigious clients in each of their respected
areas.

------
dubcomesaveme
All mac, no dual monitors, they honestly put some sort of flame decal on that
table, and minimalism is not one of their design philosophies.

In summary, needs more Helvetica.

------
patrickgzill
Bleah. Also: why did I have to shrink the text size in order to read all the
text in both text boxes on this page:
<http://www.thewonderfactory.com/news/index.php>

------
s3graham
Looks like a lot of the Yaletown loft offices in Vancouver.

I prefer some walls and more monitors, myself. But, I get the impression the
advertising-y, designer-y type folks are happier with that style of setup.

------
eru
Only one monitor per seat?

~~~
paddy_m
There is a monitor? I had to zoom in a lot to catch a glimpse of it.

~~~
eru
Perhaps not in the first picture. They are clearly visible in the later parts
of the slideshow.

------
sown
Perhaps. Since I'm a non-artists mundane type, the work I would hypothetically
be doing would be more important. All those pictures feel kinda tacked on,
anyways.

------
strlen
All the money spent and they couldn't afford dual _large_ monitors and at the
very least _cubes_ (not to mention private offices) for their developers?

~~~
nickpp
Yeah, the lack of some massive displays struck me as odd too. Our offices are
plain and boring but the walls of screens lit them up.

------
kentosi
i wonder if people would ever get ANY work done. such plush surroundings would
only make my eyes wonder.

and even if people WERE dedicated enough to get work done, wouldn't it imply
that they'd just ignore all this fancy stuff?

------
InclinedPlane
Glorified cubicles.

Notice that the majority of the shots are of communal areas or conference
rooms. There's a few shots of a "collaborative workspace" and another shot of
part of an "open workspace". This is just a dressed up cubicle farm like all
the others pervasive throughout the IT industry.

This is such an annoying trend because there's plenty of sound research that
developers with individual offices are more productive (due to fewer
interruptions, or at least a greater ability to control interruptions).

Say what you will about Joel Spolsky, the guy at least knows how to treat
developers right by giving them real offices instead of yet-another-glorified-
cubicle-farm: <http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#>

~~~
diego_moita
Actually, you have much better endorsements than Spolsky. 2 classics in
software engineering also stress that individual offices are much better:
Rapid Development, by Steve McConnell and Peopleware by Tom DeMarco.

------
clistctrl
Their walls may be prettier, but my monitor is bigger, and so is my second.

~~~
quellhorst
My monitors are bigger and so is my TV, but that doesn't matter.

You can get even more done by delegating work to be done on other people's
monitors than your own :)

