It's been a long time since many of us experienced all the joys the office has to offer. Crisp crunching, incessant humming, that guy who bangs at his keyboard super-loudly... is it all coming back to you? If the ambient noise is something you miss, your working from home day is about to get a lot better.
I Miss the Office is a time-sucking interactive website (to make your own, see our pick of the best web design tools), which simulates office noise – a resource that currently feels like a big hit of nostalgia, as well as being some top-class procrastination.
The site, designed by Fred Wordie, Ben Olayinka, and Valentin Cheli of creative agency Kids, is aesthetically minimal – simply an office floor plan with colourful floating components and starkly arranged furniture. But clicking on each element activates a different office noise, which work in isolation or layered together so you can enjoy a symphony of office-themed babble.
If you leave the website running in your browser, those noises will continue to chime in every so often, helping you to feel less alone in your WFH space. You can even up the number of colleagues if you'd rather work in a bigger team.
We have to warn you, most of the noises are not pleasant (as you'd imagine). There's some particularly loud chewing and a squeaky armchair that could easily pass for a noise far ruder, to name two of the most irritating. But even so, it made us nostalgic for a time when other people's behaviours were our problem.
"All these noises require input from people, people that are currently missing from our home offices and that’s why it's comforting," explains Cheli. Whether comforting or irritating, we think this is a sleek, fun piece of web design perfect for whiling away a few minutes.
Not ready to return to the office? Check out Lego's comical guide on how to WFH like a pro.
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