desk – RasterWeb!

Because of the pain I’ve been in all year I started looking for solutions and someone on Mastodon mentioned this desk thing that lets you lie flat on your back and use a laptop. I order one pretty quickly. I should note that “pretty quickly” was probably a few days later because I am not one to make quick purchases, but I was in pain.

I just call it the “Lie Down Flat On Your Back Desk” but the actual name is Laptop Desk Designed For Lying Down Sitting Posture, Helping To Relax The Neck & Back, Various Positions: Sitting Lying On Bed, Sofa, Floor and it’s from GpshopCreations

Does it work? Yes, it has allowed me to use a computer while lying flat on my back on the floor with my legs elevated. So mission accomplished there.

As a product designer I had a few little complaints about it, very minor things not even worth mentioning, just things I would do differently. At the end of the day this is some wood, an elastic band, some knobs, and some threaded inserts. It’s the sort of thing I could make myself if I wasn’t flat on my back.

Here’s what it cost:

Item Total $333.00
Shop Discount -$166.50
Subtotal $166.50
Order Total $190.28

I thought $333 USD was a ridiculous price and I would have never paid that much. Luckily it’s really $166.50 USD. And again, being in pain I had no issue paying that amount. In total it was $190 USD and hey, it’s a business expense so I could actually work.

I left a review and gave it 4 stars (out of 5) and the shop owner messaged me asking me to change to 5 stars. I did not. The item arrived a few days later than the arrival window, and that’s after I got a message from the shop owner confusing my order with another, and as I mentioned there were a few minor issues I have. Very minor.

Looks, I run an Etsy shop and I wound never ask a customer to change their review. If I get negative feedback I would do what I could to work with the customer and make them happy.

Anyway, besides all the little issues the desk has been great. I give it 4 stars! Now there are plenty of alternatives out there, some fold in half, which might be nice. One other complaint I have about this desk is that it’s large and you need to store it somewhere. Again, there are other options, I just didn’t take the time to shop around because of the paaaaaiiiiinnnn….

I recently replaced my iMac with a Mac Pro, so I figured it was time to rip the entire desk apart and redo it all. I’m still not at the level of those “ultra-clean keyboard, mouse, display and nothing else” desks, but that’s OK, I don’t really want that… those are too damn clean.

So in the photo above you’ll see the Samsung 22″ display, and to the right an Apple 20″ display. I’m still not sure on the placement, and I may swap them. I’d also like to raise them up just a little bit, as I’m used to my displays being slightly higher. I’ve also moved most of the external drives and cabling underneath the desk. (There is a 7 port USB hub behind the monitors, but it’s fairly unobtrusive.)

Also, if you want to compare, here’s the details of my last desk remodel (2009), and the one before that (2008), and before that was the embarrassing cable nightmare of 2007. I’d say things are improving.