Are you a control freak, disorganised mess or privacy nut? If you want the answers, Microsoft thinks all you have to do is look at your PC. Even better, take a walk around the office and do a mental check on what kind of psychos, er, co-workers you share space with.
In a left-field plug for Vista, Microsoft brought in Donna Dawson, a psychologist specialising in personality and behaviour to analyse a selection of office workers’ desktops. As a result, she identified key personality indicators as well as 7 desktop personality types: Generic, Specific place; Goal-orientated; Trophy; Escapist; Artistic and Sociable.
• Desktop with icons strewn across the screen – the owner is disorganised and tends to lose focus easily
• Even icons on each side – owner values balance and proportion and tend to keep a cool head in tricky situations. Likely to be organised and dislike clutter
• Desktop with many rows of icons – reflects a person who needs everything to hand, likes to feel in control and on top of their life, while at the same time revealing a tendency to be slightly disorganised
• Personal photos as wallpaper – indicates the kind of person you are and what priorities you have. Often a parent will have a photograph of their child, or a keen traveller will have a photo of an exotic location. Photos of friends shows popularity, useful in work environments where you need good people skills
• Plain blue wallpaper – suggests the kind of person who likes to keep their personal lives private
• Trophy photos as wallpaper – Choosing pictures of past successes can suggest a big ego and someone who glories in their past successes so choose carefully!
Dawson comments:
“Our desktops are our personal space and as such provide a fairly accurate personality description of an individual. My belief is that everything says something about what we’re like. You may not consciously be aware of it but once you know, then you may be able to manipulate how other people think of you; your desktop can be used to give off a positive message about who you are.”
Judging by mine, I’m a privacy freak who wants to be in control of his life, needs everything to hand but has time for his family. That said, my desk looks like a wire-infested/paper mountain warzone so throw a fair dollop of ‘disorganisation’ in there too.
So much for PCs as psychologists.-Martin Lynch
[...] to add a physics perspective to the upcoming … , but very cool nonetheless.” via Gizmodo Gizmodo UK : What Your PC Says About You – iconfessimageek.com 02/26/2009 Are you a control freak, disorganised mess or privacy nut? If you [...]