We tend to be amused by old advertisements showing a family enthusiastically huddled around a 7 inch diameter TV screen. I sometimes wonder whether in 20-30 years people will laugh at our advertisements presenting persons scrunched over laptop screens/keyboards as “a model of efficiency.”
At the same time, skepticism about the “eye height” doctrine appears well-founded. The article below presents advice which appears to be: a) backed by physiological research; and b) sensible as explained. It has certainly set the baseline for my thinking and experimentation. Dennis Ankrum explains that the 15 degree eye declination might be a resting position for distance viewing, but computer work is close work, where a range of 15 to 50 degrees downward is closer to resting. A related observation: when we want to work close, we tend to look downward (i.e., work closer to the chin than the forehead), and even at that it is easier to accomodate for distance when working at arm’s length than closer.
Other details from the same link: Glare is a function of contrast in illumination – e.g., watch out for bright direct light in your field of view. The top of display should be farther from the eye than the bottom of a display (consider how we hold a book to read). And against the “bolt upright” posture – “the next posture is the best posture.”
For me, doing the following made me more comfortable
and productive.
In decreasing order of importance:
Switch from mouse to Mouse-Trak Prefessional trackball.
Switch from ordinary keyboard to TypeMatrix 2020 keyboard in
QWERTY made. Strong index finger is used for Enter key instead
of weak pinky. Keys arranged in more comfortable positions.
Not as much horizontal or vertical finger travel needed.
Switch from Aeron chair to Grahl split-back chair.
Lower monitor as much as possible. This caused my eyes
not to dry out as much and upper body was more comfortable.
Swap control and shift key fuctionality on Linux since I use
control more than shift.
Switch from using TypeMatrix 2020 keyboard in QWERTY mode
to using it in Dvorak mode. Less finger travel.
Switch from two monitors to one 30" monitor. Can use bigger
fonts which causes less eyestrain.
Thank you for your post. I know all the ergonomics advices. A lot of them work, but as with best practices, you have to see what you’re comfortable with as well.
I’m fairly long (1m97 / 6"5.5’’) and not very muscly, and so, likely to strain things easily.
I’ve got a knee chair (the simplest model at http://images.google.com/images?hl=enq=knee+chairgbv=2 - cost EUR20ish 10 years back and still works). I claim that it has saved my back, as it requires you to keep your back straight, instead of letting it rest on the backrest.
I’ve adapted my desk to me, not otherwise. What I did was sit down in my comfortable chair (the knee thing) and kept my back straight up, upper arms straight down and lower arms at 90deg angle (with a normal chair also your hip and knee angles shoulde be 90deg). Then measure the height of the underside of your underarms (get help from someone) and get this height precisely. For me it was 83 cm.
83 cm desks don’t exist so I built my own. My monitor (CRT) was on my computer (desktop model, not tower - but anything will work) I think THAT, not the chair, was the best investment I ever made. Due to moving, I now work at a much lower desk, and I can’t sit at the computer for more than 1 or 2 hours.
So: get a good chair - sit well and measure arm height - adjust desk.
At my work my chair and desk were too low. I’ve asked for a raised chair and a movable desk. Got the chair (is a charm) and the desk. Desk is still 1.5 cm too low, and I can feel it. I think in ergonomics you have to measure in at least half centimeters, maybe less. However, do what’s comfortable, not what’s “best” according the formula. Nobody is equal, and relative body part lenghts have actually quite much variation.
Drink a lot of water. It will help against RSI. The secret: you have to go to the toilet every hour or so, so you move. I actually got the advice to drink LESS (water) from my doctor (drank 3.5 litres per day).
Sugar is actually a dehydratant, so sugared drinks, like coke or lemonade, will actually dehydrate you - this also goes for sugar-replaced (light/diet) drinks, and appearently for (unsugared) coffee (though I don’t know that, don’t drink coffee). I try to drink at most 2 glasses of sugared drink a day - however during nightly sessions I occasionally do 2 bottles of coke
To spare your wrists: ergonomic keyboards and minimal mousing around, and relax.
To spare your back: never EVER sit still. At least not for more than a couple of minutes. Change position, move around, take a walk and think about a problem, stand up. Relax.
To spare your neck: have the screen in front of you and at eye-level. Relax.
To spare your eyes: don’t look at the screen so much. Relax.
To spare your life: keep it simple, stupid! (and relax)
Fantastic post, we’ve been advocates for a long time of needing to consider ergonomics.
We’ve done a lot of work recently with programmers and developers and many of them have found the evoluent mouse really useful, it’s a vertical mouse (so a bit like you are shaking someone’s hand) and it takes a lot of pressure off the wrist. Available left or right handed!
In terms of ergonomics for laptops, the best thing to do is to buy a laptop stand (to get the screen at the approx the right height for you) and use a plug in keyboard and mouse. If you travel a lot it might be worth looking at a really light weight one, so it’s not going to weigh your laptop bag down (and causing an ergonomic nightmare when you are walking around)
I haven’t read all of the comments, so I don’t know wether anyone has brought this up yet. But those pictures look disproportionate.
The fore arms on this bloke are at least a good hand-span too long, when you take into consideration the various angles that should be involved, and the points of view. So the positions they are showing are simply not possible - that’s assuming, of course, that your not closer to the ape end of evolution tree…
If you’re working on a laptop full time, consider getting a generic laptop “dock” station, such as the Logitech Alto. It raises the laptop screen and gives you a real full size keyboard.
I always tell people to get the Knoll Chadwick chair - especially if they think that they like the Aeron… It’s designed by the same guy as the Aeron, but it’s updated with the latest technology. Fewer adjustments and more sensitive to your individual movements. VERY comfortable, and built to be ergonomically correct. Check it out at www.theknollstore.com
For the past two years, I’ve stood up at my desk. In my last job I actually was given an architect’s table that I could slide up to belly-button level. I put my monitor on a milk crate, and my laptop in front of that so I could use the montor screen as a second monitor, the two monitors stacked vertically.
At first I found that my lower back did not like it much, but it has gotten a lot stronger. I also find that I don’t go into my post-lunch food coma as easily.
I think I just got tired of the idea that the doc asks what you do, you say “computer programmer”, and he says, “okay” and automatically checks “sedentary”.
I’m just replying to Jason questions about where to get a good chair, I thought it might be worth while giving a few tips on what to look out for in a good chair.
Get a chair that can have a forward tip in the seat, helps to keep the pelvis aligned,and then this keeps the natural curve in the lower spine.
Get a chair that has a backrest that you can independent adjust so that you can get a good angle on it
Make sure if you are tall that the chair can go high enough for you (feet firmly on the floor, chair as high as it will go, then arms at a comfortable right angle to your desk).
The bit you actually sit on should be about hands width away from your knees, too close and it will encourage you to adopt a slouch position or sit to far forward so that you get no support from the back.
In terms of what’s the best chair for your budget, really depends on what your budget is:
The rolls royce of ergonomic chairs is the RH range, but it’s in the same price league as the Aeron chair (but much better ergonomics wise)
A really good chair if you are a sloucher is the Axia Pro, perfect if you work long hours in front of a PC - and the way it’s built makes if very hard for you to adopt a slouching position
A good budget option is the Nomique range, has a lot of adjusts and you can buy small, medium or large sizes to suit your frame, also has injection moulded foam - which means the foam gives more support and is more comfortable than cheaper chairs on the market.
Whats the verdict on arm rests? My chais (Stealcase Leap) has them, but I have the set low so I don’t use them when typing - come to think of it, I never use them.
The increasing popularity of laptops is bad news regarding ergonomics (suboptimal viewing angle - neck strain, small screen size, highly reflective screens* - eye strain, wrist positioning - RSI problems).
If you’re using a laptop I strongly recommend to invest in an external monitor/keyboard/mouse combination if you spend a significant amount of time at your desk.
Raymond
* whoever thought this up should be forced to work in one of our offices for a year. Fortunately, the business lines from the major manufacturers are still available with anti-glare coatings - we won’t buy anything else.
I developed RSI in both wrists (tendonitis) more than a decade ago, and I immediately contacted an ergonomic specialist working for our city government (a large U.S. city). (His job was to approve all types of equipment purchased for employee use that could potentially cause RSI. The Microsoft natural keyboard described above, which was initially on the City’s approved list, was later removed, because they began hearing complaints of elbow pain from those who used it on a regular basis.) He recommended that I purchase the Kinesis contour keyboard and articulating arm supports (such as ErgoRest Arm supports). Together, they made it possible for me to get back to work. I’ve used both ever since, for several hours nearly every day. Whenever I attempt to use a regular computer keyboard for 15 minutes or more, wrist pain begins to develop. I head back to my Kinesis and the ErgoRests, and the pain is gone.
my chair seat angled down a little, to open up my abdomen
my monitor(s) higher than recommended - centre of the monitor level with my eye: forces my head up to align my spine
I have also (to great hilarity among my co-workers) taken all the numberpad keys off my keyboard, aand blu-tacked my trackball onto the now-vacant space so I don’t have to reach off to the side for it.
I highly recomend RSIGuard, this is software that forces you to take breaks, it blanks out the screen, great stuff!
There are other software out there, but this one I liked.
I’m interested to hear people’s opinion about the position of the screen. I don’t like looking down, I like to have the middle of the screen at eye level, but I’m told this is wrong. But if I constantly look down, I feel neck ache… any ideas?
Everything taken into consideration do not stay in a static position for more than around 45 mins depending on level of normal activity ( more active the longer you can be static). Basically get everything in the right position monitor etc but more importantly is do not sit more than necessary, take micro breaks. Do your work and then walk around a little. We are not meant to sit around so get up an do something other than siiting and staring at a screen. Ergonomics 101
Kinesis used to make an Evolution split keyboard that could actually mount to your computer chair arms and was split and fully movable. However the total price of $1200 kept my employers from justifying that purchase for me 8^D
I’ve been trying to save my pennies, but sadly it appears they discontinued the line. Man I drooled over that thing.
