Computer desk

The invention of the computer caused a change in the design of the modern office workstation. Computer desks are designed with different levels of Cubicle Level Protection depending on the perceived use.

About fifty years ago engineers discovered a conflict of human physiology when workers in newly designed Compact-Close-Spaced office workstations began to have bizarre or psychotic episodes. The problem was peripheral vision reflexes. The solution was to block peripheral vision of workers that require deep mental investment to perform their jobs. Not all workstations or computer desks require 'Cubicle Level Protection.

Accounts vary as to the history of this discovery. Recent articles give the date of Herman Miller's Action Office One as 1964. There were articles as early as 1961.

Computer desks may or may not be designed to stand alone and supply protection for the user. Simple desks have only the bare necessities to support a computer and its peripherals.

The theory seems to be that there is not enough human traffic in the home, dorm, student apartment, or small business office to require Cubicle Level Protection in those locations.

The computer itself is normally a separate element from the desk, even if it can take some time to dissociate computer and desk given the number of system cables that can get entangled with parts of the desk. Only a few contemporary computers are actually designed to be built within a desk made specially for them, like the British iDesk. They are then not removable and more precisely not distinguishable from it. Many experimental projects or concepts of the Office of the future often feature completely integrated desk-and-computer work spaces.

The most common form of contemporary computer desk is a simple variant of the Ergonomic desk, in the sense that it has, at the very least, an adjustable keyboard tray and sufficient desktop space for handwriting by a single user. Provisions are also frequently made for a monitor shelf and holes are integrated in the design to make it easier to wire all the computer components together. The typical Armoire desk, for instance, is usually sold with these features, or more, while the better of the many Cubicle desk designs existing all have holes and trays and shelves at the right places for computer systems.

There is a seemingly endless variety of computer desk shapes and forms. At one extreme in the size scale some furniture suppliers catering to educational institutions offer huge multi-student computer desk rows made to support and/or contain dozens or hundreds of computer system elements in novel ways in order (in theory) to facilitate general maintenance, prevent theft and/or vandalism and make wiring easier. At another extreme in the size scale several manufacturers offer rolling Lectern desks or computer carts with a tiny desktop, with just enough room for a laptop computer and a mouse pad.

On the production scale one finds at one extreme original looking computer desks adapted individually from old upright pianos by local crafts persons. At the other extreme office furniture sold by many Self-assembly furniture companies are usually produced in batches of thousands or more.

See also the list of desk forms and types.