Standing desks have been rising in popularity these past few years, so I thought I’d design one that is truly geeky: a standing desk that looks like an arcade cabinet. It’s the perfect standing desk for work and play.
While the desk looks cool, I think it may have the added benefit of fooling people into standing in front of it for long periods of time with little or no discomfort — just like being in an actual arcade (minus the continuous feeding of quarters). There’s just something about arcade cabinets that can lock-in the attention of people, even when the game is in an idle state. Hopefully that carries over to working on spreadsheets.
This design was based on the 27″ iMac. If you need a larger screen or more desk surface, then a 2-player (Mortal Kombat) or 4-player (TMNT, The Simpsons) cabinet could be utilized.
If you need to sit the desk height could be adjusted, with a rolling cabinet used to free up some leg space (personally I’d just use a bar stool). Also there’s lots of room near the back of the cabinet, which could be used for shelves or storage.
I love this idea. But I do think that there isn’t much actual desktop area. This could be a plus in some cases where you want to keep things lean and free of clutter. It also takes up a lot of floor space for very little usable area. Though, much less than an actual desk so that too might not be an issue. We build a slim cabinet for the gaming industry that would take up less space. Something that has the classic sidewall shape and is the same height, but isn’t as deep as a full cab. Just an idea.
I addressed desktop area in the post, and like all posts here, this isn’t a concrete design that people have to adhere to. Run with a slimmer cabinet or cover it in neon lights if you wish, that doesn’t change the basic premise shown here.