I'm currently working on the report for the latest project of my MSc. As well as causing the recent absence of posts on this blog it is also causing me to spend hours working at my desk at home. Sadly, I can't honestly say my workspace was designed for this.
One of the problems with living in rented accommodation, especially when you often move on to somewhere new every year, is that you can't really customise the space to your needs. I'm almost as well off here as I've ever been as a student. The bed, storage and couch in my own room (that's something new) are all about as good as I could hope. The desk just doesn't meet my needs though.
This added time at my desk has set me to thinking about how it could be better. Most people with more than a passing interest in the internet will probably be familiar with the working conditions at the Googleplex and to a lesser extent
Yahoo. A gym, a canteen serving edible food, the freedom to go seemingly wild in your own little space and of course those essential spacehoppers.
Can I get close to this?
Well I'm lucky enough to have the University's swimming pool next door and sports centre less than a 2 minute walk away so I'm getting there. If I really want to recreate the experience though I need those spacehoppers and as the floor below can already hear whenever I wheel my chair around I'm guessing effective utilisation of a spacehopper would result in complaints.
Ok, so the google/yahoo-style corporate environment is probably beyond my capabilities. Has anyone slightly smaller created a workspace I can take inspiration from? Well there are some suggestions that they have
here. I'm getting closer but that site, even with all the inspiring pictures, doesn't really give me anything to work with. I need more pictures and some discussion would be helpful.
PositiveSharing points out some more good examples. The wall that can be used as a whiteboard at MindLab reminds me of seomoz's
interesting and
slightly concerning (if you wait for the last minute of the video) use of whiteboards taken to its ultimate conclusion. It is also probably more useful than the
corkwood wall. I can't see pinning your shopping list to that going down well. It's a close tie with the
wall made out of post-it notes though.
A crazy number of links in one paragraph there and I'm still not sure how much it helps me improve my own space. I'm not sure how well stapling blocks of post-it notes to the walls would go down. They said I shouldn't use blue-tack on the walls but I don't remember them mentioning staples. I'll have to check my contract.
Getting a wall of post-it notes isn't going to make my actual desk all that more comfortable. This article by Joel Spolsky discussing their
relocation and design of their office caught my eye and it is obviously working for them. Their architect has a second series of photos showing the
extension to the initial layout (flash site - sadly no direct link).
Shoemoney's new office looks good and would be worth considering further but I don't have the space for three monitors and what's with the spiders web of cables on the floor?
At the moment feel lost . . . and more than a little jealous. Is anything I've seen going to be achievable before I finish my current course in three years? Probably very little but all is not lost. All this 'eye candy' has at least got me thinking about what I'm looking for. Here is my, undoubtedly incomplete, list;
- I need a larger work surface.
- Ideally my monitor would be directly in front of me rather than slightly to the side.
- In addition to a clear desk (semi-) ordered drawers would be nice. I like this idea but can't figure out how he stops things sliding about as the door closes and opens.
- I need more storage space - perhaps a filing cabinet. Much of my work is done on my computer but that doesn't stop paper junk piling up.
- It would be nice to be able to look into the distance from my desk rather than facing a wall.
- I need a new chair. £15 chairs don't last for 3 years.
Some of this is doable and some isn't. I'll have to just chip away at it and see how far I get. In theory I could go to one of the University computer labs and get the clear desk, monitor directly in front of me, the ability to look into the distance and the comfy chair. Sadly though they don't have the software I need so I'll be working from home again tomorrow. Definitely need to work on this chair.
