Hasta La Ideas

This is a project whose concept is meritorious enough to look at, but problematic enough that we should talk about it. Deskbloks are a system of technology-embedded oak squares which end users are meant to assemble together into a desk. There are five varieties of these blocks, as seen below:

The idea is that the user orders the blocks they want, then assembles the desk in a size and configuration of their choosing. Okay, that sounds nifty enough, but what will the actual UX be like? This is where I have my doubts.

First off, the key benefit of the concept appears to be that it tackles cable management. 

The legs are even hollow, allowing one to route cables through them. 

But I’m not sure that I want to plug anything into the front or side edge of my desk (and certainly not the rear). Perhaps this is particular to me, but I have a wide desk with work taking up the full width of it, and I roll my chair left or right to address different areas at different times. Having cables sticking out of the front would get in the way for me, and I do not have access to my desk’s sides.

I find the headphone jack/speaker modules to be the most puzzling: Who wants to crawl under the desk to plug a jack in? Nor can I see any advantage in floor-facing speakers.

The joinery method also seems problematic. The blocks appear to be user-joined with mending plates, only, on the undersides. And the blocks are made from oak to boot. This doesn’t seem like a structurally-sound way to support a heavy horizontal surface, and I have little faith that your average consumer—they who apparently have trouble assembling Ikea furniture—will be able to pull this off.

The development team is trying to get the project funded on IndieGogo. But while I laud their honesty, I do find their production woes troubling:

The process is expensive because we need to make 10-20 bloks in order to get just 1 perfect bloks. If the campaign proves to be a success, we’ll be able to optimize the production and create more bloks more easily.

Starting off with a part rejection rate of 90%-95% just does not sound promising to me.

Lastly, I think that the buying process also needs to be thought through. The average consumer will probably need an online configurator, allowing them to create different assemblies while it spits out final dimensions and prices.

I know it sounds like I’m crapping all over this project, but that’s not my intent; I think the concept has some merit, but needs several rounds of really thoughtful iterations. This seems like the kind of idea that might be presented at one of those Ikea design labs, and might start to hit its stride in the fourth or fifth round of development.

So, if you were part of this development team, what changes would you make? For starters, I’d say the oak has to go in favor of an engineered wood. I’m all for natural wood desks, but not when there are multiple components meant to be fit together; the problems created by any wood movement or warping might prove insurmountable.

Your thoughts?