How can radar sensors help optimize office space?

Radar occupancy sensors help optimize office space by revealing which areas people use, when they use them and whether the room mix fits demand. Workplace teams can use those observations to test changes to desks, phone booths and meeting rooms before committing to a larger redesign. Start with the decision, then choose the measurement that can answer it.

An office can have empty desks and a shortage of places to take calls at the same time. A building-wide average will not explain that mismatch.

Ask a question the floor plan can answer

Choose one problem: are large rooms mainly serving individuals? Does a desk neighborhood fill up on the same days? Are people using a new collaboration area? Define the area, its usable capacity and the hours when it should be available.

Use the same definitions throughout the study. Someone entering a building, someone sitting at a desk and someone occupying a room are different observations. A reservation records intent; it does not confirm physical use.

Choose the sensor output for each space

Density’s workplace guidance describes Waffle for small spaces, including desks, phone booths and rooms. It reports capped counts of one, two or three-plus people as well as vacancy. That supports questions about whether small spaces are used individually or by groups. A three-plus result does not supply an exact larger headcount.

The same guidance points to Open Area for full headcounts and Entry for entrance, exit and building-level measurement. Review coverage and installation for the proposed area. A measurement outside a sensor’s covered space cannot be inferred from the technology name.

Test the smallest useful layout change

Consider a hypothetical workplace with frequent complaints about call space. Observations show that several larger rooms often hold one person, while nearby phone booths are occupied. Instead of immediately removing meeting rooms, test an additional small focus space in one neighborhood.

Compare matched working days before and after the change. Check whether individual sessions move into the new space and whether larger groups can still find suitable rooms. Ask employees about acoustics, access and comfort. More use is helpful only if the space serves the intended work.

Keep peaks and missing data visible

Look at concurrent demand across the decision area. Adding each room’s individual maximum can overstate the number of people present together when those peaks happened at different times. A quiet weekly average can also hide a crowded Tuesday.

Record sensor coverage, missing intervals and changes in capacity. Treat unavailable observations as unavailable, rather than counting them as empty space. These details make a before-and-after comparison reproducible.

Move from evidence to a space plan

Agree on a decision rule before expanding the experiment: preserve access at busy times, improve the availability of the needed space type and confirm that employees find the change useful. Then measure again after the new layout has settled.

Book a Density demo with your floor plan and planning question. Explore how to choose an occupancy analytics platform for the reporting workflow that connects those observations to decisions.