The 25-cent tour of my study
I’m always fascinated by photos of other people’s desks and offices, and taking pictures of my own is a most satisfying way to procrastinate. I made a set with notes for those of you who are also interested in such things.
Update: I must have been more distracted than usual yesterday, since I neglected to mention that this was inspired by Johndan’s workspace survey.
Comments
Well, we both can mess up a
cushion.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 4, 2007 6:59 PM
One of the things that interested me the most about Johndan's workspace survey was the issue of how accurate it might be. When I filled it out, I was in the middle of grading papers, and my desk was even more messy than usual. Was anyone else struck by the urge to tidy up a little before taking pictures?
Fortunately for my honesty, I didn't yet own a digital camera (I finally got one just a couple of days ago), so I didn't send in pictures. But the issue remains. Whether you're evaluating screen shots or workspace pictures, how can you be sure you're getting a representative example?
Posted by: Tom Wright | January 9, 2007 9:23 AM
I hadn't thought of the fact that people might tidy up before they took pictures, but that's a good point.
In any event, I'm not worried about getting a representative sample, at least at this point. Instead, I'm looking for examples to discuss. Sort of like Christopher Alexander's Patter Language, which just provides a catalog of different types of architecture and discusses how each works. (Although I'm not so much interested in cataloging as exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of all these approaches, how we organize our workspaces as ways of approaching and dealing with our own lives.)
Posted by: Johndan | February 15, 2007 10:05 PM