Reading and writing – and ‘idea work’ in general – require at minimum 4 square feet of horizontal surface.  Whether in a business office, library, classroom or coffee shop some form of the humble table is what makes high-tech highly functional.

Think of those places you “work” most often.  If your experience is like those my students and I have been observing for the last few years, a “writing” surface winds up being important to the effective use of your time, with or without digital technology.  The comfy chair is not out of style.  They still get used, as do miscellaneous window seats and floor cushions.  Such spots are used briefly for limited tasks.  But for the big stuff – engaging with the material – some form of writing is involved.  Whether by hand, keyboard or touch screen, a horizontal surface is an essential part of the technology.

Add a chair, wireless, power, good lighting and air conditioning, along with a sense of security, and you have a good candidate for a study space.  It’s not much different from most office locations, and looks a lot like the contemporary forms found in many business offices.  In all these cases, at least 4 square feet of “table” makes it workable.

Study Space – Early in 2012 my students at the University of Minnesota and I began an exploration of on and off-campus study spaces.  After initial hypotheses, defining terms and experimenting with data collection, we began to quantify all the locations where a student could study/work for an hour without being hassled.  This meant that the library and most coffee shops could be counted – but not most fast food joints.

We thought that time of day would matter, so we organized our observations for morning, noon and afternoon.  Our data collection was limited to counting seats, tables and floor area.  Beyond libraries, cafeterias, coffee shops and the like, we counted any interior space that provided power, wireless and a chair.

It was only after the initial foray of observations that each of the students independently made the same observation.  People use tables for study.  Seats count, but tables define the capacity of the place for study.  The seats with tables were used first and more often.  Tablet-arm chairs were poor seats and worse tables.

After the fact it seemed so obvious.  Sometimes, it’s the simple things – about four square feet of “writing surface.”

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