Most of what I
perceived as a

have on how I worked. As you might expect, technical issues like projector resolution meant that certain tasks were better suited to a given surface. The desk provided an excellent area to organize my thoughts and keep track of my schedule using a projected to-do list inside of a virtual sticky note. It was a space for peripheral awareness, peripheral applications, visual organization, subtask triage, group review, and the temporary storage of files and notes. By contrast, the monitor was an area for focused tasks, such as reading, writing, programming, and Web browsing.

The physical separation of the surfaces could also be used to reflect a logical separation within and between different aspects of work processes. For example, I would often take note of, organize, and sort through various things (thoughts, sources, images, etc.) on the desk before integrating them in a more complete form using the monitor, where I had better control over details. This is not dissimilar to habits observed using virtual desktops or multidisplay solutions [ 6, 7]. However, unlike a virtual desktop, the contents of my periphery remained immediately visible, and unlike multiple displays, the desk space offered more creative ways to arrange the contents of my focal and peripheral zones.

such actions, allowing me to mix the physical and digital, juxtapose items, and play with layouts by changing position, size, color, and orientation—with the layouts all remaining in view and sharable with those around me.

An example of this in practice is document planning done by distributing thoughts over sticky notes. Physically grouping them by relevance allowed me to use color to indicate additional details like belonging within a specific theme. Other examples include projecting icons onto a physical inbox as a reminder that they should be dealt with soon. In a collaborative context, placing and orientating objects toward a person can be used to imply ownership or attract attention.

Through these kinds of habits, I came to see the desk as an extension of my thought processes—a memory aid, like any desk, but also integrated more fluidly with a digital context. I could quickly manipulate, save, and share with none of the cumbersome qualities of physical objects, but with all the transience, speed, and connectedness of the digital world.

In terms of personal expression, I was able to decorate my workspace using virtual and physical items to suit my taste. My desk played host to an array of clutter: bottles, mugs, paper, icons, sticky notes, laptops, and digital fish, which would swim around unintelligently, appearing to hide behind my monitor and beneath my keyboard. Even with a setup as simple as mine, there was scope for interplay between the physical and virtual. For example, I placed my recycle bin over a hole in my desk so that as files were dropped into the hole, they were simultaneously deleted.

benefit of the desk
stemmed from its
role as an output
device rather than
an input device.

 

Creative Use of Space Part of the value of being able to creatively arrange your working environment stems from epistemic actions: the act of modifying your environment to put yourself in a better position to think, solve problems, and extract information from your surroundings [ 8]. The desk expanded the palette of

November + December 2012