Ergonomics

Monday 24th February, 2014

How tall should my desk be? It’s a simple question, and one that has raised (pun intended) some interesting questions. Having designed, had manufactured, and then assembled a desk myself, I’ve found that actually, it’s the wrong height. I mean it is the correct height if you take the literature as gospel, but for me specifically it’s the wrong height. How far out is it?

Two O’Reilly books, roughly.

The last time I experienced RSI was at university. In 1988 I was the first case of mouse-elbow the doctor had seen. Which was surprising given the other computer related complaints arising from prolonged exposure to the Mond room.

Fast forward, ahem, 26 years, and here I am with RSI. This time it’s the wrist, and this time it’s down to having short arms, and as my chemistry master used to say, the angle of dangle.

Because the desk is built into the bookcase, I can’t simple prop it up with books. However, I can raise the working surface with books. Luckily, quite a lot of the Programming Tools series are roughly the same length,so two MySQL books, a ‘sed & awk’, and the ‘bash Cookbook’ are doing sterling work. Once I’m happy, and the wrist proves to be fully recovered, I’ll knock something more permanent up. In the meantime, more typing, and less mousing around Minecraft is in order.