Experiences: a year in the life of an interactive desk

  • Authors:
  • John Hardy

  • Affiliations:
  • Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

The author has spent a year living and working with an interactive office desk based on a modified desktop computer. This paper recounts these experiences as a post-hoc, reflective case study that investigates the effects that ergonomics, input devices and user interface elements have on work patterns, task organisation, collaboration and personal habits. In addition to covering usability questions such as why the mouse and keyboard remained the dominant input method, it illustrates how new workflow processes formed around hardware constraints and the roles that separate visual planes played in the management and perception of subtasks. This study explores the meeting of the virtual and physical workspace in terms of clutter, personal expression and aesthetics and concludes by discussing the future of interactive office desks and outlining the key findings from the year.