Happiness is deeply personal, ever-evolving, and subjective, yet it connects our individual experiences. To explore these connections, I propose examining happiness through the lens of Action Office II. Conceived by Robert Propst in 1968, Action Office II aimed to revolutionize workspaces through modularity, adaptability, and human-centered design. It envisioned an office that evolved with its users, fostering collaboration and privacy while adapting to individual workflows. However, its adoption deviated from Propst’s intent, becoming the rigid, monotonous cubicle farms we know today— a shift reflecting societal prioritization of efficiency over individuality and well-being.

Yet the core principles of Action Office II— individual-centered design, interconnectedness, and evolvement— remain profoundly relevant. These principles mirror the qualities of happiness: a dynamic, modular system that adapts to the individual, thrives on connections, and evolves over time.

To represent my collected data on happiness, I’ve created a multi-faceted project embodying these logics. A web application showcases qualitative insights through interactive, adaptable visualizations, and a series of process books translate Propst’s ideals into tangible, hands-on explorations. At the core is the rolodex, a physical artifact reflecting happiness’s ever-changing nature. Like Action Office II’s modularity, the rolodex can be rearranged, updated, and personalized, embodying happiness’s fluidity and individuality.

By mapping the Action Office II’s ideals onto happiness, this project reclaims Propst’s vision and offers a fresh perspective on happiness— one prioritizing flexibility, connection, and growth over rigid conformity.

I had people from all walks of life fill out a form on what happiness meant to them with the following questions:

• Age:
• How would you define happiness through a different emotion (ex: curiosity) or feeling (ex: peace of mind)?
• How does happiness influence your sense of purpose?
• How does happiness manifest in your life? Where does happiness show up in your life?
  
  
• Year:
• What is happiness to you right now?
• What was happiness to you 2 years ago?
• What was happiness to you 5 years ago?
• What was happiness to you 10 years ago?

Their answers populated the Happiness Rolodex. The intention behind the rolodex is take one leave one: fill out your own set of answers, add it to the rolodex, and take one with you as a source of inspiration for where can someone find happiness.

All of people's answers to what is happiness is held in the online database, which is showed through the visualizers below. Participants were able to navigate through different interactions of the dataset, as well as add theirs to the data set and alter it, as inteded with the physical Happiness Rolodex.