Co-working space as workplace - Characteristics and user experience

By means of qualitative research methods, this dissertation develops new knowledge of co-working spaces in the concext of workplace management discipline, more closely distributed workplaces, and workplace usability. The perspective of workplace development whereby the workplace is seen to be distributed across the city has become increasingly common within both workplace practice and research since the first decade of the 2000s. Additionally, the roles of workplace usability and user experience as central concepts related to the development and operation of facilities have become more generalized. The concept of co-working space is one of the newest and globally most common multi-tenant office concepts to have evolved in order to support new ways of working. It has influenced the workplace user demands and thus challenged today's workplace providers to create more attractive, hospitable and user-centred workplaces if they are to be successful. Initially, co-working spaces were born to support collaborative and mobile working habits of independent workers by offering attractive and flexible workspace with community. Later, co-working space concept has been applied versatively and extensively to all kinds of workspaces. The concept of co-working space remains a somewhat new research area. Thus, related  knowledge of distributed workplace needs to be aggregated. While attractive service is the key asset of co-working spaces also workplace user experience related research is topical. The findings of this study builds on prior discussions about distributed workplace locations and placement of co-working space among it, as well as those concerned with the evolution and typology of co-working spaces. Current workplace usability and user experience discussions is advanced by investigating how co-working space concept meets users' expectations of their future workplace, as well as by illustrating the desired user experience of a successful co-working space. On a practical level, this dissertation develops understanding of the co-working space concept as well as means to include user experience viewpoint to workplace development.