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As smart office environments increasingly adopt automated systems to enhance efficiency, comfort, and sustainability, they may inadvertently limit personal control, affecting employee well-being and satisfaction. This case study investigates how individuals (N=12) experience smart offices through experience sampling and semi-structured interviews, using the m-Path mobile app to capture real-time insights into participants' perceptions of their work environments. The results are organized into three settings: the home office, emphasising autonomy and personalization; the open office, fostering social interaction but requiring negotiation to manage distractions; and the smart office, which provides automated comfort yet restricts personal control, creating an illusion of choice–termed ‘fake control’. To address these challenges, participants used personalization and negotiation strategies. Our findings show that future smart offices should prioritise genuine user control and actionable feedback, balancing individual preferences with collaborative needs. Integrating Human-Building Interaction (HBI) and Human-Data Interaction (HDI) principles can enhance well-being, satisfaction, and productivity.
Brombacher et al. (Fri,) studied this question.