Designing Focus Frames for the Modern Office Problem

Focus Frames are glasses with built-in side shields that block part of the peripheral view.₁ We designed them for situations such as visual distractions at work, where movement beside a desk keeps catching your eye. They are one option alongside changing your seat or workspace. Research on visual attention helps explain the questions behind the design; it does not establish that Focus Frames improve attention.₂

The insight came from Goghini founder James's experience following his ADHD diagnosis at 31. Our published origin story describes him making blinders with his hands and reporting an immediate difference in his own focus.₃

“We kept coming back to this idea of visual debris,” James recalls. His comparison was with safety glasses: physical debris on one side, distracting visual activity on the other. It was a personal observation that gave us a design problem to work on.₃

In practical terms, that might mean a person walking past the glass meeting room, a notification light three desks over or a colleague's bright jumper at the edge of your view. The question was how to put a boundary beside the eyes without making the glasses feel like special equipment.

We wanted a familiar eyewear shape, with side shields built into the frame. The shields obstruct part of the view to either side. That is the physical design: a barrier between your eyes and some of the activity beside you.₁

Our origin story also describes rounds of prototyping and work with an eyewear designer. Appearance mattered alongside function. A tool intended for a desk, a meeting or a shared workspace had to be something people could choose to wear.₃

A shared office puts movement in your sightline: people passing desks, doors opening, colleagues getting up. Being told to ignore it is not the same as having a workspace that suits your task. It can feel like trying to work while browser tabs keep opening.

There is research on visual distraction in ADHD. In a study published in Sensors, Elbaum and colleagues combined a computer attention task with eye tracking. Adults with ADHD spent more time looking at irrelevant areas than controls, and visual distractors affected their eye movements. The researchers were examining a diagnostic test, not office productivity or Focus Frames.₄

The mechanisms are still being investigated. Paul Overton's paper in Medical Hypotheses proposed a role for the superior colliculus, a brain structure involved in orienting attention. It was a hypothesis, rather than an established explanation of how every ADHD brain processes peripheral movement.₅

For your own desk, start with what you notice. Is it people crossing your view, an animated display or repeated trips to a nearby printer? Those are different problems. Naming the interruption gives you something concrete to change, whether you are considering glasses or asking for a different seat.

Our peripheral vision article explores that part of the visual environment in more detail.

The case for open offices often centres on collaboration. One study gives reason to question the assumption that fewer walls automatically mean more conversation.

Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban studied two corporate headquarters moving to more open layouts. Face-to-face interaction fell by approximately 70% in both, while electronic interaction increased. Their paper measured interaction, not an ADHD-specific effect or a general drop in productivity.₆

Sabine Kastner and colleagues approached visual attention from a different direction. Their brain-imaging research, published in Science, examined competition between visual stimuli and how directing attention changes that competition. It did not measure office fatigue or test side-shield glasses.₇

These studies raise useful questions about a workspace. They do not tell us that every open office is unsuitable, or that one product will solve the problem. A layout may suit a conversation and make a reading task harder. People need useful choices about where and how they work.

Focus Frames are one option to consider when movement beside your desk is distracting. A different seat or desk position is another place to start, if your workspace allows it. Try one change during a familiar task and notice what happens, rather than changing everything at once.

If your main difficulty is organising the work itself, our ADHD productivity guide addresses that separate question. A quieter view and a clearer task are different things to work on.

Our starting point was personal experience. We also looked at research on peripheral vision and ADHD, while keeping the limits of that research in view.

Richter and colleagues' 2023 study in Frontiers in Psychiatry tested glasses that added small visual stimuli at the periphery. This was a different device, made by VIZO-Specs, rather than glasses that block movement with side shields.₂

The two-month study was open-label and uncontrolled. Of the 97 adults included in the analysis, 62% met a clinician-rated response criterion. The maker funded the study, and the authors acknowledged that placebo effects could not be ruled out.₂

That is a reason to investigate further, not clinical proof for Focus Frames. Adding peripheral stimuli and blocking part of the peripheral view are different approaches. The study cannot establish that our side shields free up working memory, reduce cognitive load or improve performance.

We did not conduct clinical trials. We started with feedback from James's immediate circle, then involved a broader group of testers.₃

Informal feedback is useful during product development. It is not a controlled test of whether Focus Frames improve attention.

Learn to ignore distractions. Develop better focus. Try harder. When advice stops there, it puts all the responsibility on the person trying to work.

We think support should include the environment. Neurodivergent people deserve spaces that take their needs seriously, with room to explain what is difficult and ask for a practical change. Our approach to neurodiversity and language starts from that respect.

This design question extends beyond a single office. A university lecture hall, a co-working space or a conference venue can all put other people's movement in your sightline. The useful question is what the task requires and which parts of the setting you can change. It is not whether you can force yourself to tolerate every arrangement.

For a workplace conversation, be specific: “People pass this side of my desk all morning. Could I try the desk facing the other way?” That gives you and your colleague a change to discuss. Our ADHD and work article covers the wider workplace context.

Focus Frames are one response to a design problem. We would also like to see more choice built into workplaces themselves.

Imagine offices with:

• Quiet zones with less visual activity.

• Desk screens or other visual boundaries people can choose.

• Lighting controls at individual workstations.

• Focus rooms that are easy to access.

• Places to take a break from a busy shared space.

You may not be able to redesign your office, but you can start with one part of your view. Notice the interruption, identify a change and compare how the same task feels afterwards. The aim is a more workable day, not another test of how much distraction you can endure.

If movement beside your desk is the problem you want to address, explore our Focus Frames. Look at the side-shield design and lens options, and consider how they would fit the place you work.