While the finished product is lovely, it took me 2 hours to put this together. I am by far NOT a novice at assembling furniture.  I have assembled much more involved pieces than this that turned out to be much easier.  The instructions(pictures) for this desk were almost impossible to follow. I just figured it out on my own by the size of the holes and which screw or dowel fit the hole. 
Great piece, you just need to figure out if it's worth all the time to assemble.