14 Aug 2003 | Tibloto said...

Where do you put your drink? Does anyone work at a desk without a drink?

14 Aug 2003 | Jacob said...

No, I've never used one, and I don't think I ever will. I agree with you completely about the attractiveness and sheer usability of a clean, flat desk. A large, traditional desk with peripheral ports and cable channelsnow that I could use! I anxiously await the wireless office...

14 Aug 2003 | fajalar said...

Doesn't the drink go in that tray that comes out of the computer?

14 Aug 2003 | Jesper said...

Yeah. You can also store your credit cards in the floppy drive.

14 Aug 2003 | steve, another steve said...

I built my desk just so I'd have enough room. I just wish it would curve a little so I could see the outside monitiors.

And where would my dog sit?

14 Aug 2003 | steve, another steve said...

I think I broke SvN....

14 Aug 2003 | Tom said...

I agree, can't stand most of the custom made computer desks. I just need a big flat area were I can put my random bits of paper, books, drinks, food, cd wallet etc..

14 Aug 2003 | britt said...

Yep, an old unfinished door atop two filing cabinets. That's a desk. (Use the door knob hole for cables.)

14 Aug 2003 | suppafly said...

i like desks that resemble fold up tables but have a hangdown keyboard tray and maybe some shelves underneathe.. the top should be large and flat.

14 Aug 2003 | Will said...

I think I have the almost perfect desk right now. It's flat and plain, with easily covered wire holes, but the real cincher is that I can raise and lower it just by turning a handle.

15 Aug 2003 | Neil said...

Cable management is my #1 pet peeve about computer desks. It just seems like a huge no-brainer, and yet there doesn't seem to be a lot of desks with this feature built-in.

We may be moving to wireless soon, but what about all of those annoying power bricks and adapters? Add in all of the USB and firewire cables for the printer, scanner, external hard drive, external speakers, network router, tablet, etc., etc.... I don't think we'll be seeing the truly "wireless" office for quite some time.

Show me a nicely designed desk that has a built-in, ingenious method for dealing with all of these, plus enough desk space for papers and frequently used books, and I'd buy it in a second.

15 Aug 2003 | alisha said...

I agree. I stack everything around my very large tablespace according to priority - it all has to be in my sight. I also have that nifty little Ikea shelf thing that wraps around my monitor and holds all my cds, paper, software, etc up off the desktop. No way could I deal with those little octopus spaces. They make me uncomfortable just looking at them.

15 Aug 2003 | Michael Spina said...

Cable management has got to be tricky. I don't think it's as easy as running them down a channel or hole behind the desk. Printers, keyboards, etc. are coming from all directions, and not all cables end behind your computer. And what about when you upgrade? Do you have rip everything apart to get to the power cable from your busted CD burner? I've tried a few gadgets and haven't found anything suitable yet.

15 Aug 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Yet another triumph of FORM over FUNCTION ... kind of like Madonna's acting!

15 Aug 2003 | Andrerib said...

Long flat table made from a door and 4 IKEA table legs with no scratch metal ending.

You can spread all your books and papers while working. That way you can look at your desktop and have ready access to anything you need.

Anyway, using a notebook or a desktop (with TFT screen) the hardware area is smaller each day. We have again small hardware like those old terminals but this time they have 2 roles. Powerfull desktops and fast connection terminals.

15 Aug 2003 | BillBo said...

THANK YOU for posting this! WTF is up with these desks? Customization? Ergonomics? Yeah, YOURS not mine. I'm with you, JF, I'll take a flat surface any day.

15 Aug 2003 | MrAnonymous said...

The problem I have with those kinds of desk is that they aren't usually very sturdy. I want a desk that will support force and weight without moving at all. These may be improved to minimize that, but I'd still be reluctant to buy one. Plus, I own an ugly, bulky Gateway PC.

15 Aug 2003 | fajalar said...

My desk (at home anyway) is a 8x2.5 foot, fold-up table. Large, sturdy and great. And I got it new for 20$.

What I really need is a nice chair. That is far more important to me.

15 Aug 2003 | Darrel said...

My biggest pet peeve is the fact that no one seems to be able to make a usable, ergonomic keyboard tray.

Any desk you look at in the store MIGHT have a tray. If it does, it's only big enough for a small keyboard. It *may* have a slide-out mouse surface the size of a beer coaster.

I've always had to go to Home Depot and buy a couple of drawer slides and a big board and make my own. About $30 and infinitely better than the $180 POS that I have at work at the moment (currently jury rigged with a software box tied to the mini-mouse platform so I actually have a usable mousing surface at the right height.)

If Design Within Reach was actually within reach, I'd snag this desk:

http://dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=1052&fp=sc

It's a brilliantly simple solution: make the keyboard tray the entire size of the desk. Hide the clutter? Slide the drawer in.

15 Aug 2003 | Chrispian said...

In a word - kisok. That's about all this could be used for.

15 Aug 2003 | Chrispian said...

Woops. Kiosk ;)

15 Aug 2003 | David said...

I made the mistake of buying a computer desk. It isn't one of those crazy ones, but it is configured in such a way that it will only play nice with one monitor. Ok, so a lot of desks are that way, but it just goes to show that big flat surfaces are awesome.

15 Aug 2003 | Dave said...

I think Stewart Brand covers this well in "How Buildings Learn"... in buildings (and desks) large generic space is usually *more* useful than custom built space... I have always wondered why people wouldn't want a large, flat desk.. just for the "stuff" that comes with working in one area...

15 Aug 2003 | Noel D. Jackson said...

I LOVE my new desk--a biomorph flexo:
http://www.biomorphdesk.com/1-888-302-DESK/flexo/overview.html

It's awesome. A flat surface, or two as in my case, works much better than those new-fangled

You can view it in my room, right here:

http://leavesrustle.com/articles/3/

15 Aug 2003 | monkeyinabox said...

We just built a new office and are luckily getting an all new furniture system from Steelcase. Overall the desks are nice big flat surfaces which I love. The downside is no real cable management. Of course all the desks are adjacent to walls, so that makes the issue not too bad. Big and flat are the way to go!

15 Aug 2003 | Darrel said...

Dave:

Way to pull in a tangent into how buildings learn. I love that book.

15 Aug 2003 | Cruxman said...

Give me curves. If ergonomics is fitting the work to the worker, I'd like a large, flat desk that has some curve to it since my arm reach is somewhat of an arc. It'd be great if all the desk components, especially the keyboard, weren't the linear beasts we're so accustomed to.

In addition, I'm all for sturdy. A desk should be strong enough to dance on.

15 Aug 2003 | Derek K. Miller said...

The Ikea Jerker desk is, I think, a perfect mix: cheap ($170 here in Canada with one pivoting shelf, I think), super-adjustable (the desk surface and bridging shelf can go at any height), customizable with added pivoting shelves (I have six!) for peripherals and even a vertical CPU holder, and -- best of all -- a big flat surface for the main stuff, with a subtle curve at the front edge so you can reach for a mouse.

Plus you can stand on it if you want to.

Here's mine:

penmachine.com/jerker_desk.html

15 Aug 2003 | Derek K. Miller said...

Oh, but the cables are still a hassle.

15 Aug 2003 | Darrel said...

As for cables, that's what the Wifi and Bluetooth are supposed to resolve.

Alas, we still need to work on wireless electricity.

15 Aug 2003 | Dave said...

Darrel - Tell me about it.. one of my top 10 books, and it really is applicable... I haven't looked at many things the same after reading the book.. plus, of all the books I have read, it is the only book having a title that has made my wife remark "That seems like a really 'smart' book" ^_^

17 Aug 2003 | hurley#1 said...

I'm a big fan of AnthroCarts. I've been using one for the past six years and it's pretty much perfect. You can add on whatever features you want (full-size keyboard tray, vertical extensions, side trays, printer trays, etc.) or keep it simple.

On keyboard trays, I agree with Darrell that the tray needs to be wide enough for both the keyboard and mouse. Having your mouse at a different height than the keyboard is setting you up for a serious repetitive strain injury. I have friends who put their keyboard in a tray and the mouse up above on their desk, and they always say "I've been doing this for years and it doesn't hurt," but what they don't realize is that RSIs often take 5-10 years to develop. I think the mouse is ultimately the source of many RSIs. Graphic designers get a lot more RSIs than people who type all day and don't use the mouse as much.

Ideally your keyboard and mouse should be just above your legs, and the keyboard should have a slight negative tilt (the back should be lower than the front). That's the most neutral position for typing.

18 Aug 2003 | Elaine said...

I'm a fan of both the AnthroCarts and Ikea's Jerker. (Actually, when my husband & I first saw the Jerker, we said simultaneously that it looked like a low-rent anthro.)

if you can afford the anthrocart, I'd say go for the adjustacart. the huge and movable keyboard shelf rocks.

the jerker is good too; it was $150 US last winter, including the CPU shelf and adjustable shelf. the little curve in the front of the surface is darn clever, almost like that curve which Cruxman wishes for.

24 Aug 2003 | Sam Harper said...

We had an office in NY for our marketing department that was "designed" by some clueless designer who made everyone's desk about 10 inches deep with a partition wall at the back of it. Of course, the first issue was that there wasn't any place to put a monitor and keyboard, those little things that people were supposed to use to work...

About the only improvement I've ever seen on a big flat desktop are desks where the center is a clear piece of glass with an angled shelf below to stash your monitor on. Of course, with flat-panels out now, monitors are taking up much less desk space.

In any case, I'd rather be in Jamaica than sitting at a desk any day!

16 Jan 2004 | Gregory said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

16 Jan 2004 | David said...

For example, if you see an AIM window peeking out from behind your browser and you click on it, that window will come to the front, but the main application window will not. The Mail.app/Activity Viewer is another example. The Aqua system of layers works well in many instances, but not in all. Thank goodness that the Dock is always there to come to the rescue. I know that clicking on an application icon in the Dock will always result in not only the application coming to the front, but also any non-minimized windows associated with it. And if the application is active but no windows are open, clicking on the Dock icon should create a new window in that application.

16 Jan 2004 | Didimus said...

If an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.

16 Jan 2004 | Guy said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

28 Nov 2004 | click said...

4385 Very well said chappy.