Admittedly, I'm in something of a hybrid situation at the moment, and I have the benefit of being a chemist, not a programmer. My lab has a few desks in it, and

Admittedly, I'm in something of a hybrid situation at the moment, and I have the benefit of being a chemist, not a programmer. My lab has a few desks in it, and technically it's "open", but since we're constantly moving in and out of the office and I can always go for a walk outside to think during the day, it works for me. Look for compromises and suss out the absolute most important point. For me, that's not having people moving around behind me. I have a large set of shelves behind me, and you can only enter my desk area from ahead-left of me.