From Crisis to Resilience: Design Spaces for Crisis-Responsive Infrastructuring in Adapting Remote Work Practices in a Video Game Development Company During COVID-19 (and Beyond)
Sebastian Taugerbeck, Nino S. Bohn, Michael Ahmadi, Kevin Krings, Volker Wulf · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented shift from office-based to remote work, catching many organizations off guard. This paper examines a German video game development company's adaptation to enforced working from home during the first lockdown. Through remote interviews with 20 employees from various departments, we identify technological, physical, organizational, and socio-psychological challenges. To address these, we devised a Crisis-Responsive Infrastructuring framework, blending socio-technical perspectives with strategies to enhance organizational adaptability. Our research highlights the crucial and reassuring role of Information and Communication Technology in maintaining productivity and social connectivity and reshaping work dynamics and infrastructure. Further, we emphasize the importance of flexible work concepts, such as hybrid models and decentralized organizations, in fostering resilience. Finally, by advocating for adaptive infrastructures that support remote work during crises and beyond, we aim to enrich the discourse on modern work practices and offer a systematic approach to strengthening organizational resilience.