by Serafine Lilien | Feb 19, 2009 | ErgoArts Press
Yesterday CRI held a focus group in their San Francisco Office.
There were a few people from Herman Miller present. Herman Miller makes the now famous Aeron chair that is in so many movies as well as offices and is somewhat of a status symbol. Well, they have come up with a new chair the Embody Chair.
I got a chance to sit in this new chair and it doesn’t fit me. I am 6′ tall and I couldn’t get the lumbar support to fit into my lower back. Rebecca Shirey, who is an account manager at Herman Miller said that she had a 6′ tall man who was not able to get the lumbar adjusted to fit his lower back either. I wonder what anthropometric measurements they were using in designing the chair.
Besides this, the chair has alot of very nice features, that appear easy to use. One of the big problems with office chairs that people have is that people do not tend to adjust them to fit themselves. I would say in about 95% of the ergonomic assessments that I perform I need to: 1. teach people how to adjust their chair, 2. teach people what a neutral seated position is and 3. help them to adjust their chair. Chairs are a bit complicated to work and alot of people do not take the time to adjust their chairs to fit their bodies.
A few cool features I liked was how the seat pan could be lengthened and shortened and how easy it was to adjust the lumbar support. The shape of the back support is similar to the Knoll Life chair, where is comes in, in the middle, kinda like a woman’s curves. This is a great feature because it allows the user to sit back in their chair and have freedom of movement from their elbows. A lot of chairs curve around the person causing the elbows to have to be in a slightly forward position and disallow the arms to hang naturally by the sides of the body. This is one of my objections in the Aeron chair. It also comes in a bunch of cool colors like orange and green.
by Serafine Lilien | Feb 12, 2009 | ergonomic equipment
People keep asking me to come up with a list of “ergonomic” products that I like and that I recommend to my clients. Here are some of my concerns:
One needs to keep in mind that thinking you need to purchase a new chair to help your back issue may not be the correct direction. Maybe you are keying too high and really need to lower your keying surface, then you can sit back in your current chair and really do not need to purchase a new chair.
As Alan Hedge a professor at Cornell University said in a recent lecture I went to: There is relatively little systematic evidence of increase productivity in piecemeal ergonomics.
You have to look at the whole picture, ergonomics looks at the whole picture, not just a part of the picture. That is why it is preferable for you, dear reader, to get a professional ergonomic assessment, where in your entire workstation can be evaluated.
With that said, I have started to add links to some of the products that I do regularly recommend in the Blog Roll.
by Serafine Lilien | Feb 10, 2009 | ErgoArts Press
I was interviewed for the article
Technology Misuse, Overuse Can Hurt by Dr. Mildred L. Culp.
Serafine Lilien, ergonomist at ergoarts.net, conducts ergonomic assessments evolving from her overuse of technology. As a graphic designer, she’d spend 70 percent to 80 percent of her 8- to-12-hour workdays using a mouse and hitting the space bar. Carpal tunnel syndrome, diagnosed in 1992, is still with her. “Learning how to type in neutral positions completely saved me,” she remarks.
“Remember to take breaks,” she says, “Time goes by, and people forget there’s a body to take care of.”
by Serafine Lilien | Feb 9, 2009 | ergonomic equipment
Tim Ferriss who wrote the 4-Hour Work Week, did a great review and some good research on Finding the Perfect Office Chair.
As an ergonomist who works every day with how people sit and work comfortably, and people who experience pain from it, I was fascinated with his process.
After consulting Twitter and trying things on his own, he decided to purchase a Herman Miller Aeron chair .
Even though I’m financially comfortable now…I had trouble believing a chair could possibly be worth $850-$1,200, but my back pain led me to pose the question to the omniscient Interweb.
How did others feel? – More than 95% of Aeron users replied with “yes, absolutely”
He did find the Aeron chair to help with his lower back issues.
It was surprising to me to hear such a high positive response rate for the Aeron chair from Tim’s Twitter followers.
Estimating my own professional experience performing 6000- 7000 ergonomic assessments, perhaps 30-40% of users were sitting in Aeron chairs. I would say their average comfort level was about 50%.
I have taken alot of users who were uncomfortable in this chair out of it and into other types of ergonomic chairs such as Soma or Office Master chairs. Users found these chairs to be more comfortable than the Aeron chairs.
This goes back to the bases of ergonomics – it is ergonomic for those that fit into the anthropometric of a particular design for a specific body type. There is something out there for everyone, it is just a matter of finding what works for you and using it in a neutral position.
I wonder if Tim got any instruction on setting up his chair to actually fit his body so he can work in a neutral position. (Tim, if you’re reading this, I know you’re in the Bay Area and I’d be happy to offer you a free evaluation. Just call me at the number to the right.) From the picture on the website, it looks like he fixed his chair but not the rest of the ergonomics of his workstation. I hope with his back issues getting resolved he does not get pain in any other part of his body.
by Serafine Lilien | Nov 10, 2008 | ergonomic equipment
A new mouse came out on the market a few months back. It is made by Humanscale and it is called the Switch Mouse. As an ergonomist who has performed over 7000 ergonomic assessments, I find this to be the best mouse out on the market currently. It solves so many of the common mousing problems that I see out there. Here are a few selected problems and how the Switch Mouse fixes them. One website I checked had the retail price being $72.00.
First, there are two fields of research concerning input devices. One field of research is concerned with the speed and accuracy of the device such as movement time and less error rate per device. This area of research has found that the use of the fingers and thumb results in better performance and faster target acquisition rate than large muscle groups (arm/shoulder). The majority of commonly used mice are designed to fit into the palm of the hand in a way that utilizes these research findings.
There is a huge problem in the computer world consisting in a high injury rate in the form of repetitive strain injuries affecting the fingers, thumb, wrist, hand, forearm, upper arm, shoulders, neck and upper back. Studies say that the design and use of mice are causes for these types of injuries.
There is a second field of research devoted to testing devices based on how the muscles are used and what positions the body is taking to use the mouse. Awkward postures observed during mousing are wagging the wrist back and forth and wrist extension. This second field of study focuses on body performance while the first field of research mentioned focuses on input device performance.
Mice were designed to fit into the palm of the hand to take advantage of the speed and accuracy of the fingers and thumb. But this design causes many musculoskeletal problems.
The Switch mouse, by being adjustable in size, helps the user to avoid wrist deviation (wagging the wrist back and forth). This allows a greater range of users to use their input device in such a way that almost the entire hand has a place to rest. The white part is somewhat similar to an ordinary mouse, while the black part supports the part of the hand behind the palm closer to the wrist. In this way the whole hand fits on top of the mouse. To get the correct fit for this mouse: place the part of the hand behind the palm closer to the wrist on the black portion of the mouse and if your finger tips reach over the top of the mouse, instead of curling the fingers back to hit the buttons, make the mouse longer. Any hand in the 5-95% size range can use this mouse with a neutral wrist position.
The Switch mouse allows for a more natural hand angle because the designers factored that angle into the design of the mouse. Also, there is an adjustment that can change the angle to make the mouse usable for the right hand as well as the left.
The Switch mouse allows the entire hand from the finger tips almost to the wrist a place to rest. Therefore no wagging the wrist back and forth is necessary!
This is how I describe the proper way to mouse to people I evaluate: the movement needs to start from the shoulder and end with the hand. In a traditional mouse that comes in the box with the computer you just purchased it is very difficult to start the movement from the shoulder. The movement usually starts at the wrist. Try it now, see your own results. So the movement ideally needs to starts from the shoulder. Make little circles (not back and forth, not side to side, but circles) with your mouse. When you use this motion, ideally you want to start the movement from your shoulder. You also want to keep your elbow as close to the side of your body as possible. Since the Switch mouse allows your whole hand a place to rest, it is much easier to start the movement from the shoulder.
I have gotten good user feedback from several people I recommended this mouse to. The only negative feedback that I have received so far is that the top button upon which the thumbs lies on top of has been accidentally hit, so I just tell them to disable that button, so their thumb can lie flat on that part of the mouse.
I have been waiting for years for someone to design a mouse that works, is easy to use, fits a wide number of the population and keeps the wrist and hand in a neutral position. I feel the Swich mouse meets all of my criteria. I highly recommend this mouse to those who have any RSI injuries and to those that are pain free (to keep you that way!)
