Tailor-made ergonomics:
The Workstation for not-perfect human
The homeworking, that was a prerogative of a few people in Italy, now is a widespread reality.
After several months of working in the kitchen, drawing room, bedroom, balcony with sea or ring-road view, the postural problems have also spread and accentuated, or pre-existing conditions with neck, back, wrists or fingers are awakened.
However, not all evils come to harm.
I have been working at home for 13 years, and I face up these problems for just as long. If it was necessary to conduct infinite research on foreign stores in the past and hope to have bought the right thing with little information, today there is more choice and faster deliveries.
From a widespread discomfort, as always, we will arrive at greater awareness.
But let’s get back to business. After years of research, I have come to the present workstation.
It looks a little odd, and it’s not the top of the design — it’s not easy to find all the necessary elements with color-coordinating — but it does its job.
Furthermore, Arturo can testify! 😉
Let’s start with personal needs
Ergonomics is an abused word. We hope that an object fits human conformation and consequently is suitable for our needs.
This is not always true!
We must consider that we are not all identical, that most tools fit a standard, and they are not declined for specific characteristics such as gender, height, hand size, pre-existing conditions…
Therefore, not all tools we can find in my survival kit are “ergonomics”, nor are they created to be used for this purpose and may not be helpful to everyone.
But I hope my creativity can help you start asking the right questions and identifying the tools that can meet your needs.
Adapt yourself or the tools?
I suffer from autoimmune arthritis for at least 20 years, and I started with articular and muscular problems from a very young age. If this condition at first precluded me from various playful activities such as sport, excursions, or a trivial walk, it has also created working problems over time.
The disease evolution has influenced my career:
I started with the idea of work as an illustrator, the hands were my plus. The natural evolution was to merge my love for drawing and pc becoming a graphic designer. Then I approached web design and, at last, web development.
Three years ago, I abandoned illustration and pagination software. (Also, if occasionally I meet these friends for a short reunion.)
In particular, the problem which led me to abandon the graphic work was the difficulty of using the necessary Adobe shortcuts for a long time.
After a couple of hours, I couldn’t touch the keycaps or keep the same hands’ position. This time frame has shrunk more and more.
I tried, for a while, to use a Launchpad, but it was very complex…
In this situation, carpal tunnel syndrome, which hits many people of this trade, was added. Indeed, use a mouse for eight consecutive hours is highly fatiguing work.
But never give up!
I continued to look for and think about making the most of “my mind” and available tools.
I have noticed that changing movements during the working day helps hold off tendinitis and neuritis, so I changed my routine, and on the other side, I started to test different keyboards and mice.
Unfortunately, the ergonomic tools aren’t fit with my problem for the following reasons:
1. They are created for big hands and broad shoulders. There is a certain machismo in the industry of “technological” tools, and it seems that work to pc predominantly men or women with giant hands.
2. They aren’t the best for precision graphic work: using a vertical mouse isn’t extremely easy.
3. They suppose an excellent state of articulations and tendons or be used before the problems arrive.
The ultimate in feminine personalization that I could see is adding glitters or ridiculous Barbie pink color.
Adapt yourself and the tools
Since the body adapts and changes over time, our needs change with it, therefore what now is fine, tomorrow it will be changed.
On the other hand, if we follow the natural body conformation, with all his peculiarity, and not following a cultural standard, we can go along our body and adapt the things to us.
My solution
The keyboard
Membrane Keyboards haven’t good tactile feedback if this is advantageous for those who have good sensitivity, for those who have problems with hands may be a negative factor:
I find myself pressing multiple times a key convinced not to have done.
The width, height, and distance between keycaps are primary.
Placing my hand on the keyboard, I can touch the spacebar with the thumb, function/numeric keys with my ring finger.
I can’t use all my left-hand fingers for a long time. I mainly use thumb, index, and little finger, so I have to use them without moving my wrist and elbow too much.
The keys must be placed well away from each other, but not too much, to be able to move the bare minimum.
At last, if they have a well-defined profile, it is simpler to recognize them without looking.
The problem is always the fingertips’ sensitivity.
Sometimes I couldn’t touch anything because I can feel too much, but other times a sense of tingling predominates, which prevents me from feeling the keys.
The touch keyboards, for example, are damnation.
However beautiful, the round keys, like the retro typewriter, neither fit with my problem, to hit recursively on border triggers a painful reaction.
Keyboard’s height
Another essential thing is the keyboard’s height. Also, in this case, it is necessary a middle way, the membrane keyboards are too low, most of the mechanical keyboards are too high.
I the last years, however, are produced many mechanical low-profile keyboards.
Caution, don’t be fooled by the product description’s height; habitually, it is shown only the case’s height, without the keycaps!
For me, the ideal would be not to exceed 21 mm. I have used a Drevo Joyeuse V2 for a year, but it has flat and too close keys.
Why precisely this height?
For a good posture and to avoid inflammation of the elbow tendons, I must lean the forearms on the desk and keep the elbows and wrists in a straight line with the hands.
I tested many keyboards until I found the Fnatic Streak65, which is tall 35mm, keycaps and supports included.
The total travel is 3.2mm, the pre-travel distance 1.0mm, and the case is 22mm in height.
The keycaps are low-profile sculpted.
Also, the keyboards’ width is essential; it must allow me to use the mouse while keeping my hand in line with the shoulder and no farther.
The Fnatic Streak65 is obviously a 65% keyboard, I had to give up on the numeric keypad, but you get used to it after a while.
Ok, but how did I fix the keyboard height problem?
Usually, it’s enough to use a palm rest of the height corresponding to the keyboard. But in my case, I have one more problem, I can’t rest the elbows on a hard surface without feeling pain, and so I use:
1. an XXL gamer pad
2. two palm rest parallel to the keyboard with different heights to allow a gradual and minimal inclination of the forearm
3. two elbow rest to which I added 3mm neoprene pads to obtain correct density and height
The desk obviously allows me this position thanks to the curved form — we’ll talk about desks in the future.
Hot topic: the mouse
There are many types of ergonomic mice:
vertical, with trackball for the thumb, trackball with a huge ball which can also be used with two hands…
I had to discard the vertical mouse immediately. It is definitely designed for those who have not yet undergone carpal tunnel surgery.
I switched to Kensington Expert mouse wireless trackball, but I use it only in case of necessity.
It’s ok for browsing, and if it is not necessary to do precision operations, it is certainly not proper for using graphics programs.
The need is to have a mouse that fits my hand size and allowing me to don’t bend the palm too much. Furthermore, the wrist must not bow, otherwise, the tendon becomes inflamed.
The mice typically are large — the usual standard problem — or are too small to carry easily.
In the last years, however, the companies concentrated not on product sizes but height and weight, which helped me.
I found three mice that fit my needs.
Microsoft KTF-00006 Surface Mobile Mouse
This is my present mouse, the sizes are optimal, and it is also good in precision.
The only drawback is the click, which is very hard, I don’t think I can use it for graphic works where intensive use is required.
HP Z5000 Mouse con Connessione Bluetooth
I had used this mouse for eight months, is suitable for the softness of the click and sizes. The only drawback: Macbook Pro 16' gives me some lag caused by the BlueTooth connection.
This mouse is perfect for graphic work and is very economical. Unfortunately, it is not able to keep a stable wireless connection with the Macbook Pro.
Is it always necessary to use a mouse?
The answer is: it depends.
If your work essentially requires the processing of text files, the answer is no.
It’s essential to learn to use all the available shortcuts to open software, switch between tabs, perform a search…
Some standard shortcuts will not fit your needs, so be creative and create new ones.
For example, for me is simpler to use two hands shortcuts and limit the use of three keys too close together at the same time as much as possible.
Desk, seat and footrest add to my setup, but we’ll talk next.
First part conclusions
Choosing the right tools to work is not easy, first because until you don’t start is difficult to understand your own needs, and you should also please the eye!
This is a crucial aspect to keep in mind, often we choose devices only for their attractive design. I love keyboards, and I can understand this temptation.
Don’t just trust hearsay, try all devices yourself to understand if they fit your body, just like you would with shoes.
And don’t break down! If you don’t find at once anything that’s right for you, keep looking and be creative!
For now, Arturo and I greet you, soon will talk about The chairs’ odyssey. 😉
