MojoDome is a height adjustable worksurface with a privacy canopy that can be raised or lowered at the tap of a button.
Working and cohabitating a space with other employees was the normal up until COVID arrived. When it did arrive, we stayed home, rightly fearful of any social contact with others. Slowly, offices are beginning to be reoccupied again, though exactly what the workplace will look like and function like post-COVID is still an open question.
During the height of the pandemic, numerous manufacturers introduced social distancing accessories aimed at getting workplaces open sooner. Oceans and oceans of plexiglass separators went up, air cleaners got plugged in, and hand sanitizer flowed freely. Whether or not any of it was effective or will be of any lasting value is debated daily.
Last year Littleton, Colorado-based Xybix, a manufacturer of commercial furniture for 911 dispatch centers and control rooms for NASA, came up with an idea to repurpose an entirely new product (MojoDome) initially designed to reduce background noise on phone and video calls and improve concentration.
The thinking behind MojoDome drew heavily on the experience Xybix had working with clients in open spaces and noisy environments. In addition, the company manufacturers a line of sit/stand desks under the MojoDesk brand name. "With the rise of eCommerce, we saw an opportunity to leverage Xybix's 25+ years of experience as an industry leader in the dispatch space to develop a diversified brand appealing to small businesses and modernized industries, specifically those with open office concepts. The MojoDome was innovated to accompany the desks as a creative and simple solution to maximize square footage, offer social distancing and perfect acoustics for open workspaces," says Barry Carson, co-founder, and president of Xybix.
QB recently had an opportunity to test drive MojoDome on its own turf. We placed the sample unit into a co-working space that hosts the staff of QB and Officing (officing.com), among others, to see how the unit performed from a useability standpoint and as a possible solution for social distancing. We also considered the use-case for such an unusual piece of furniture. After all, we were already operating in a facility that included shared desks, cool lounge seats, and privacy booths which offered plenty of social distancing, visual and acoustic privacy.
The desk was delivered and promptly set up by the local dealer, and we immediately set about trying it out. MojoDome was the only height-adjustable desk in the room, and as we discovered pretty quickly, you either love or hate height-adjustable desks. While every manufacturer of sit/stand worksurfaces will quote chapter and verse of how sitting is bad for you, we discovered, as many sit/stand purchasers already have, that sitting is the preferred position when using your laptop. Full stop. Standing up to stretch your legs for a few minutes and having the desk follow you up, sure. But doing meaningful work while standing - not so much for most workers. The desk's dome folds flat to relinquish your sense of privacy at the touch of a button. But that sense of privacy you get using MojoDome in its privacy mode is primarily an illusion. It seemed to filter out very little ambient noise created by other workplace occupants. We placed the desk against an outer wall. The sense of "privacy" was pretty minimal since anyone standing behind you or walking by could easily see the work on your screen.
The dome part of the desk takes up a lot of room too. The desk is unusually large ( 58" x 43" ) given that much of the space is unusable. When using a laptop at an average working distance, there is an excessive amount of space behind the laptop that seems to serve no purpose. And, it doesn't feel "useful" in the sense you could pile up books or papers back there either.
Company supplied photo showing items you could pile up on the desk.
Additionally, there are no storage options offered, although you could supplement the desk with peds and accessories from the MojoDesk line. Also, the front edge of the desk is curved, which, when using a keyboard (or laptop), serves no purpose whatsoever.
As an editorial and graphic company, we particularly like large monitors. However, we were limited to primarily 27" or smaller monitors because the dome interfered with our larger 32" monitors when we pushed it back to a comfortable viewing distance. Your results may vary. Again, with the dome up you do get a slight sense of lateral privacy. And the dome is fitted with a few LED light strips (ours didn't work for some reason), which theoretically provides a nice warm glow, enhancing that feeling of privacy.
To be sure, MojoDome is a heavy piece of furniture, and the Chinese-sourced lift mechanisms worked well, though the mechanisms do have usage labels (duty cycles) on them, which suggests that playing "elevator" with the desk should be limited to a few times ups and downs per hour. We were also surprised to find that the lift mechanisms and lighting plug into a hastily attached power strip under the work surface—a non-industrial design solution, to be sure.
Overall, MojoDome has a very "prototype" feel to it, lacking the rigid industrial design work required of contract furniture. Using a band-saw (or Rover CNC Router) to cut unique worksurface shapes isn't design, and the resulting work surface shape makes no sense from a usability standpoint. The company builds lots of specialized call center dispatch furniture where refined design is less critical to the product's function. As a result, MojoDome is not a "finished" product that a "contract" grade manufacturer would release in 2021.
Finally, we wanted to love the product and its uniqueness, hoping that its function would overcome its form. But ultimately, not many people seemed interested in using its function either. Mainly after a day's use, the dome was found folded down flat, resulting in a desk that simply took up too much space for its intended purpose.
MojoDome is available online at mojodesk.com for $2,500.00, in quantities of 1 or $2,100 for 31 or more units..
Note: The review was updated to reflect the correct price for a single unit. The manufacturer believes that the canopy is not a problem using a 32” monitor with the desk, however we did encounter some issues due to the angle and distance we needed to keep the monitor. Yes, we could pull the monitor forward a few inches to allow the canopy to clear it. Your results may vary depending on the monitor brand and monitor stand (and height) that is being used.
Michael Wolf is the senior editor and curator of several contract design industry publications. He has worked in the contract industry in several roles, including as a journalist, product consultant, competitive analysis researcher and designer. He began his career and love of contract furniture after purchasing an Eames Aluminum Group (floor sample) chair for $99 at a Boston, MA-based Herman Miller dealership [m brown] in 1974.