Étude de cas sur l’utilisation de l’espace à Ubisoft Montréal

Case Study: Optimizing Space Use at Ubisoft Montreal

It’s no coincidence that Ubisoft was named one of Forbes ‘ Top 10 Best Employers in Canada. This video game publisher takes the comfort and well-being of its team members very seriously; a visit to its main building, located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, will convince you. The workspace designed by the property management team is designed to foster creativity and performance.

With 250,000 square feet spread over 5 floors, the main building’s workspace consists of over 30 different layouts, each more intriguing than the last. In fact, their workplace strategy is based on a simple principle: exceptional work environments for exceptional employees.

Given that the choice of layouts plays an important role in the real estate management strategy, Ubisoft contacted MySeat to better understand how the deployed resources are being used in order to better plan the next phase of workspace development.

The study on the use of office spaces currently being carried out in the main building specifically targets shared spaces:

● Meeting rooms , dedicated or shared

● Soft seating and relaxation areas

● Content production areas (video editing and recording studio).

● Leisure areas , such as cafeterias and games rooms.

By working with such diverse layouts, MySeat has once again demonstrated that its tool can adapt to many different scenarios. Using a finely tuned accelerometer, a MySeat sensor mounted on a given piece of furniture allows a client to quantify the quantity and duration of its users’ interactions. It goes without saying that the data collected remains completely anonymous.

A rather unusual room used « foam cubes » rather than more conventional seating. In this particular case, an AmbiSense light sensor was chosen to record room occupancy.

Rather than relying on detecting physical vibrations, this sensor bases its measurements on ambient light to determine whether the room is occupied or not.

This same room was equipped with AmbiSense temperature and humidity sensors to demonstrate that the ambient temperature and humidity are indeed within the commonly accepted comfort range recommended by the CCOHS .

A comprehensive review of the collected usage data allows us to draw conclusions from the questions presented by our client, including the impact of room dimensions on participants.

Strengths : Small meeting rooms (4 seats) are less used than large ones (6 to 12 seats).

A data analysis determined the average number of users occupying a room.

• During the study period, a large room was used for an average of 560 hours.
• During 70% of these hours, the room was occupied at more than half its maximum capacity.
• A large majority of meetings with 9 or more participants required the use of podium seating to accommodate the additional participants.

Implementing new technology in an organization is not an easy task. Without the commitment and monitoring of the MySeat team , it would not have been possible to achieve the desired results, while ensuring a positive response from users.

 » The MySeat system quickly understood our culture, our environment, and the reality of a company like Ubisoft. Thanks to this capability, the organization was able to proactively monitor the implementation of the different phases of data collection, and provide both relevant reports and interpretations regarding the indicators collected,  » explains Isabelle Dery, project manager at Ubisoft Montreal.