AM: Kenzie Bramwell - user insights

In order to gather more information to inform my design decisions, I conducted a quick interview with a friend of mine, Kenzie Bramwell, who teaches at an Auckland primary school.

I asked her if schools use individual desks for students, what features these desks do, or should have, and if she has any recommendations regarding the design of a school desk. From her answers, I was able to gather the following information:

- For children under the age of 10, NZ schools are moving towards group tables over individual desks.

- Her school has experienced HUGE success with their 'modern learning environment' classrooms that feature group desks and a casual seating arrangement.

- Storage comes in the form of tote shelves, away from the desks.

- Desks have rounded corners for increased safety, but when pushed together to form a large table surface, they leave gaps which is frustrating (pens, paper slides down gap and under table). Square edges are preferable in this respect, but are dangerous.

This quick interview provided some interesting insight into the setup of a normal school. It was hugely informative learning about the increased success of larger table groups over individual desks.