Examples of Ergonomics

Here are examples of lack of ergonomics in the workplace.

See the four very common mistakes people make that could be detrimental to their health and age their bodies quicker.

1. Chair is too low for Desk

Image via Neck Pain Facts

This will cause wrist strain, aching shoulders and neck.

How do you know that the chair is too low for your desk?

Anaylze your computer posture when working at your desk. The ideal posture at a computer is to have a somewhat right (90 degree) angle of your elbows and your knees.

See Ergonomic Chairs and How To Choose (or buy) an Ergonomic Chair

2. Upward sloping Keyboard

With this upward sloping 'ergonomic' keyboard, it is still difficult to maintain a neutral wrist position.

This cause strain and extra stress when typing. If you have not gone for any typing classes, you are most likely typing in a way that best suits your body.

We most likely all have some of the bad habits of typing, as outlined in Typing Ergonomics.

Learning to type terribly is important, especially if your work involves a lot of typing. You'll not want to deal with Carpal Tunnel, because by that it is awfully uncomfortable, painful and cannot be reversed! (Yikes.)

I was going down that road until I started researching sore wrists. I wear a top of the line wrist guard right now (and I'm looking very computer programmerish).

3. Use of Laptop as a full Desktop Replacement

Laptops are intially created to make the computer mobile, for people on the move for work. However it was not meant to be a full replacement for desktops.

Using laptops as replacement for your desktop can do more harm in the long run. You can run the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders.

One of the crucial points of 'why laptops are not ergonomic' is because the screen is too low for you and this causes the user to jutt out his/her neck.

This will throw off your posture, strain your neck and the pressure of the weight of your head on your neck can cause it to permanently form. This results in a forward neck posture, with a rounded, hunched back. Read about Laptop Ergonomics

4. Sitting For Too Long

Human bodies are not made to sit for hours and hours. We can't expect to sit for hours and not suffer some sort of physical consequences such as lower lumbar back pain.

Sitting still for hours puts immense pressure on your back - equivalent to a few times of your weight.

Get up and move about every half an hour or so. Also rotate your tasks, such as change mouse hands, schedule meetings in your 'breaks', do some filing etc. The key is to engage your body use in variety of ways (as opposed to typing all day long with a phone stuck to your ear).

Other Examples of Ergonomics Info

If you are interested in reading further about Ergonomics, you can start with the left hand side navigational bar of this website. It aims to answer basically the question 'what is ergonomics?' and educate computer users in easy-to-read-and-understand language.

See also Why is Ergonomics Important?

*The five main principles of ergonomics are

1. safety
2. comfort
3. ease of use
4. productivity and performance
5. aesthetics

Ergonomics was studied and practiced way back when humans started designing and making things for their use, for example, the chair. Before the chair came along, people either lay down, squatted or sat cross legged. Mostly likely they didn't experience back pain and neck pain like we do now. However, the term "Ergonomics" was coined much later on, approximately five to six decades ago.

With new industrial and office workplaces modernizing accordingly with technology, new ergonomic problems came up.

Therefore the five principles of ergonomics can be organized into these areas.

Read more about Industrial Ergonomics.

The different types of ergonomics below.

Physical Ergonomics

The effects of these interactions are studied further in forms of posture, musculoskeletal disorders, repetitive disorders, workplace layout etc.

Cognitive Ergonomics

This relates to the way the mind processes information. This is a study of how humans interact with data. Some examples of ergonomics in this area includes placement of signs, visibility and recognition, rentention of data.

Organizational Ergonomics

Organizational Ergonomics is concerned with optimizing the workplace, everything from teamwork to assessing teleworking and quality management.

Some visual examples of ergonomics can be found on Williamson-labs.com It is really funny yet smart! Highly recommended.

Ref: *Adapted from Safety News and Reviews Uk

Go back to Define Ergonomics.

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