My ergonomic desk set-up

[julesjones]

desperance asked in a comment to a previous post if I'd describe my ergonomic set-up. It got a bit long for a comment, and I thought other people might be interested. However, it's a bit long, so it's under a cut.


I have an IBM Thinkpad laptop. For the last couple of weeks it's been used as a laptop with trackpad on the kitchen table, and before the kitchen table was sorted out, actually on my lap. But it normally spends most of its time sitting on a docking station pretending to be a desktop.

Table big enough to actually put things where they need to be for comfort. It's not a particularly big desk (it's an Ikea cheap bedroom table bought because it was the only thing that would fit into the available space in the flat), but it's big enough, unlike many of those things sold specifically as computer desks, with the sliding keyboard tray. The screen, keyboard and mouse are set on the right of the desk, with the port replicator and USB hub on the left at the back, with reference documents not-in-use-right-this-second in the gap in front of the port replicator. That gives me enough room to set everything out in a left-handed configuration without wasting any space or having things encroach on each other.

Split and angled ergonomic keyboard (Microsoft Natural 4000, same as you IIRC), set so the centreline of the alphanumeric keypad is central in front of me. I specify this because what most people do is centre the entire physical keyboard in front of them, so the centreline of the main keyboard is offset because part of the physical width is taken up by the numeric keypad on the right. I have it set with the base completely flat, as that's most comfortable for me on this model, but it does come with the ability to set it to slope up or down away from the user.

That means that if I had the mouse on the right, I'd really have to stretch for it. Hence the mouse is on the left, with the buttons swapped. The other reason for doing that is that the right hand is more damaged than the left, and mouse-clicking is one of the things that can really set it off if done to excess. I'm right-handed, but I don't have any trouble using my left hand instead for most things -- were you to apply the concept of the Kinsey scale to handedness, I'd be a Kinsey 2. In fact it was the button-swapped mouse that made me realise just how ambidextrous I am compared with most right-handed people, as it drives other right-handers nuts to use it. The mouse is on a mouse pad with a built in wrist rest - it's low enough so I don't usually rest my hand on it when I'm actually using the mouse, but it makes for comfort when I'm casually holding the mouse while staring at the screen and thinking.

Decent quality screen, set at a comfortable distance and font size for reading so that I'm not hunched forward or squinting to read it. I need to re-set that, because the presbyopia is really setting in and I've just shoved the screen back slightly from where it was comfortable to use at the start of the year. Screen height set so that I look down at it slightly, not up.

Height adjustable ergonomic chair, set to the right height so that my forearms are parallel with the tabletop when typing. This means that it's actually too high to put my feet flat on the ground, but as I can't break myself of the habit of putting my feet on the chair's castor star anyway, this tends not to be relevant -- I've got a foot support at work and I *still* end up with my feet on the castors half the time. Too many years of spending half my time perched on a lab stool, I suspect. *Comfortable* chair, with the back adjusted to give me proper support, and with armrests so that I have arm support when staring at the screen and thinking. Hard mat under the chair so it will roll freely and not scuff the good carpet.

There's a tiny Ikea bedside table under the desk on the left hand side, which holds the scanner and a couple of small items, all stuff that I don't use often but that would be a pain to have to get out of the cupboard and set up before I could use them. It's tiny enough that it doesn't get in the way of my legs.

I do not store Stuff in that oh-so-convenenient cubbyhole under the desk where my my legs and feet go. Since I am a slob and will put Stuff anywhere and everywhere, you make take it that I am *serious* about making the working area shape around me, not me around the working area.

Main printer is an office-grade monochrome laser on a roll-away two drawer filing cabinet next to the desk. If I need to get to the back of it, it's easy to pull out. The colour inkjet lives elsewhere, and is either brought in on the rare occasions it's wanted, or the laptop goes to it.

No cats. Cats elsewhere terrorised into submitting to my will, and not expecting me to contort myself around them while I'm at the keyboard. :->

(I've just taken a photo of the desk, but I'm too fuzzy to a)compress the file, b) work out how to cross-post it on both Dreamwidth and LiveJournal.)

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I used to be extremely righthanded. As in, finding it difficult to do most things with my left hand.

Then I moved to Britain where I had to not only consistently drive on the other side of the road, but in a car where the controls were swapped. (The first time I did that, I was pretty useless. Now it's just second nature). What seems to have happened in that process is that the part of my brain that mirrors things has grown stronger, and I'm actually doing more things voluntarily with my left hand.

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

The (dis)advantage of being mostly left-handed is that one gets a lot of practice with that mental mirror. When I spent three weeks in Ireland, the only time I have ever driven outside the US, it took me about half a mile before my brain went "flip" and I didn't have to think about it anymore.

I do not have a need for ergonomic carefulness with computers (with dog grooming, yes!) but when I was first exposed to a mouse, I decided which hand to use it with by playing ten games of Crystal Quest with the left hand and ten with the right and averaging the scores. The right hand did twenty per cent better.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[ckd]

I too switched to left-hand mouse drive for ergonomic reasons (though in my case it was the shoulder that was getting beat up more than my hand/forearm) and have since found that I'm more ambidextrous than I previously thought.

I like your Kinsey scale analogy!