Minimalst Mistakes - Beautiful but flawed.

I love minimalist products. Ergonomists love simplicity. However, Ergonomics is about designing tasks for people, rather than having them adapt to the task. Quite often the most eloquent designs that appear to make life easier will have most obvious design flaw to an ergonomist that the most elegant designer just cannot see.

This beautiful, but flawed scandinavian table called MILK is one such design.


It beautifully hides the cords of computers to create a clear work surface and provides for custom designed storage of items. It's even electronically height adjustable, which could be useful if the desk is used by multiple users or for tasks other than computing However, it has 2 fatal flaws:

1. The single suppot pole is where your legs are supposed to be! Being able to move you legs around is central to adopting a variety of postures in long computer work to stop you getting stiff. This position of the pole will likely cause you to either continually kick the podium until you just keep your legs curled up under your chair.The result, stiff legs and a sore back.

2. The desk depth means that most people would not be able to adjust it low enough so that you can still fit your thighs under the desk but not have your shoulders hunched. The result, sore shoulders from long typing.

Very few changes are needed to make this the perfect desk. However, at the moment, the undercover ergonomist says save you hard earned 10k, or whatever, such a sleek design cost and buy a piece of wood with four legs you can cut off at a good height!