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While it's a bit metallic for my tastes, the OneLessDesk by Heckler Design is a versatile space-saver that looks great with an iMac and takes up a minimal amount of room.This sleek and slim stainless steel desk is Dean Heckler's response to the bulky desks of our recent past (and even present). Heckler believes that with flat screen monitors and wireless keyboards, the space given to a modern desk can be drastically reduced. The OneLessDesk by Heckler Design uses two "decks" that can be configured for your use...It is well designed all the way around, including some great cable management.
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14 comments:
Elegant is as elegant does. If the stainless steel blocks radio waves, you may lose function in the cordless keyboard, cordless phone, and bluetooth devices.
Right now, in my very own personal office, there is a radio-wave shadow from my steel file cabinet. Blocks off my cell phone, it does, unless I move to the left or right.
That sort of desk might make sense for a highly organized person who is completely digital. ... I, too, once thought I could downsize the desk, but I discovered that I like having dictionaries and source material and a place for my coffee mug (and enough room around it so that if it does spill... as it always will), and a place for a stack of papers and.... well, you get the idea.
Sure looks like a good place to stick a digital media pc. I keep all my music on a box and frequently watch movies on a large computer monitor.
This looks like the perfect setup to keep my media out of my primary work environment, which is a desk the size of a closet door being, in fact, a closet door.
Form over function...An impractical design for a "desk." First off, unless the two "altar" tables are kept in the L-configuration, the straight-on arrangement of the two consoles offers no functional benefits that cannot be achieved much more economically by a slide-out keyboard tray. Second, unless the shorter table has discreetly hidden wheels, it cannot easily be dragged across a carpet to a position it under the taller table, and if dragged across a wood floor, it would probably leave scratch marks unless it sits on plastic glides. Third, there is no space for a lamp on either table, meaning that ambient room light is the only source of illumination. This may not be energy efficient. Fourth, as Ken has just written, there is very little desk space available to hold a document. If this is intended to be used as more than just a computer stand, there has to be more space for someone to work. Fifth, metal is too slippery a surface for a sheet of paper, which can slide off with even the slightest breeze. I can imagine that papers resting on the keyboard stand would slip to the floor every time a person who is sitting in the chair stands up to leave or else sits down to start work. Sixth, where are the audio speakers, and where would they sit with so little table space? Most people I know would want to have at least a pair of small speakers for their computers. It's not practicable in this design. My recommendation to the designer: go back to the drawing board.
I like the concept but would like it even more if it adjusted to also work as a stand-up desk. And, yes, I would prefer the warm touch of wood.
Nice blog, btw. Trust Insty to send us to all the best!
What is it about modernist designers, that they insist on designing furniture which is totally impractical for its intended use? This desk is useless as a working surface. It's too shallow to spread out papers on, and the gigantic corner radius means that anything placed to your left or right will quickly disappear over the edge.
This isn't a desk; this is an Altar To The Holy Macintosh.
Looks good at first glance...
BUT WHERE"S THE SYSTEM BOX, AKA CPU?
God I hate these sorts of unrealistic marketing photos.
newscaper, I think the latest iMac contains all its guts in the monitor casing, or something. Which is why halojones-fan had a good point: altar to the Mac, useless for most other desk purposes.
I knew they had some all-in-ones, but didn't know they were going mainstream.
I looked.
No easily accessible USB ports I could see, only two on the back side. the new Dells we got have two on the side/edge of the monitor for super easy accessibility, plus you don;t forget your flash drive.
Of course the Mac put ultra sleek looks before some common sense ergonomics.
Plus, are the buttons on that brushed aluminum keyboard really flat? Idiots. Decades went into tweaking the slightly scalloped, self-centering keys that are standard.
There's a Mac Mini hidden in the thing's backside for some of the screen shots; they're fairly small (6"x6"x2"), so you can put em pretty much anywhere. They're useless if you actually want to do anything more than web browsing or very basic workstation use, rely on laptop form factor hard drives (which are slower, more expensive to upgrade, and less reliable), but they're small.
Oh, and at ~600 USD, they cost a bit more than building a smaller PicoITX system from the ground up or buying a much more powerful PC. People seem to be willing to put up with it for a Mac.
I don't get it. Same for the iMac.
The thing's got some good ideas, but it sacrifices too much for the appearance. Smoothed, curved faces are a great-looking concept, but they're going to result in anything remotely close to the edge rolling right off.
The ability to turn the keyboard and mouse one way while the screens are pointed another does not strike me as a particularly glorious utility. Wireless mice and keyboards can find interference with the oddest things. You should be able to fit some paperwork on there, but the edge are still taking a lot of usable space away.
There's no way you can strap a normal-sized CRT on there, a large keyboard or low-res mouse is going to go flailing off the back edge. The whole thing screams for some wheels or at least locking sliders for the bottom 'desk'.
That's, of course, ignoring the 900 USD price.
Our company has been designing small computer carts based on this idea for a couple of years now. So far, no big customers like them. We hopefully will have a version in a small chain store this year though.
I'm sure that master carpenter Norm Abrams of "This Old House" could build a beautiful wood version of this pair of stacked tables for under $100. For a couple of hundred dollars, it could be made out of even a very rare wood. Metal shmetal, who needs it? After a few months, you'd begin to hate its looks and its shortcomings as a workstation would drive you nuts.
I designed this desk. Thanks to all for your comments. To answer some questions and misconceptions...
The steel of the desk appears not to have any effect on the radio reception of wireless peripherals. All is good.
I use this desk every day and there is plenty of room for my coffee cup.
The depth of either deck is 12". This was intentional so that paper documents fit on either deck. True, OneLessDesk is not intended to appeal to paper-pushers.
I disagree with the "form over function" comment. I'm an ergonomic junky, and this desk is designed to be comfortable and ergo-correct. Most ergo desks are ugly as sin. I wanted to give folks an elegant option.
The desk is designed to add space to the conventional keyboard tray as use of input devices have increased as the need for paperwork space has decreased for many people.
The decks do slide easily on most surfaces. The feet are lined with unpigmented plastic so to ensure no marks are left on your floor.
The metal surface is fine for paper. I have had no issue with papers inexplicably flying off. It is true that the rounded corners are there primarily for esthetics. However, I have yet to lose any objects of papers off the side.
I place my speakers on the upper deck. Also, the hidden shelf has a perforated front face so to allow small speakers to be hidden under the upper deck in the hidden shelf.
The desk is not intended for use for people who need to "spread there papers out". It is meant as a small desk for folks who wish to minimize the space occupied by their desk.
If you are not using an all-in-one computer like the iMac, a mini-CPU like a Shuttle or MacMini, your CPU is intended to sit on the floor.
Great blog. Thanks for the post, and keep your feedback coming.
Many thanks. Dean Heckler.
But by the time I pile all my crap on it and under it I probably couldn't get anywhere near it.
I now have a "L" desk in a 10X10 home office. I still have a pathway to the desk but can't move around too much or things start falling.
Invent something for that!
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