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Ask HN: What ergonomic solutions are you using?

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Re: Ask HN: What ergonomic solutions are you using?

#31

Post by raindropm »

For me personally, it's about change what to focus. I used to feel ache and pain on the shoulder and wrist. I've tried a lot of kind of keyboard, mouse, mousepad, wristpad, etc. Still not really helpful.

One day I suspect that those pain are result of my overall bad health(from sitting in front of screen for years and years) and have little to no exercise at all and not just single cause, and decide that I had enough and start training everyday in the morning — getting stronger, fitter, lift weight, loss weight, eat better, drink more water, more sleep. less stress — all kind of things I never to before in my life. I'm the worst person when comes to exercise, but feel I have to change my habit, or else I'll deep in this life of pain forever.

I found that's work for me! I don't feel pain anymore, I feel much fitter and healthier overall. Better than any ergonomics keyboard or mouse out there.

Anyway, good tools is still better than bad tools I guess.

For keyboard, I used to use tenkeyless Logitech gaming keyboard. Good keyboard, but I found that it is too big for my hand and have to stretch my pinky finger to reach the modifier keys all the time, which made my hand sore after just a few hours. I then switch to another quality keyboard: the Apple Magic keyboard and really happy about it since it have a lot less key travel. Really good keyboard except the weird directional key layout that need to get used to.

Re: Ask HN: What ergonomic solutions are you using?

#32

Post by mclehman »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #10
magic-chicken wrote: post #6

I use a keyboard with no numpad, it is less wide than a standard keyboard and allows my arms to stay parralel to my body. I also use a vertical mouse with a trackball to help with wrist pain.

I do this as well, specifically an 84 key keyboard. It still has home, page up, page down, and arrow keys but it’s less wide than a typical tenkeyless.

Just to add a (far?) more extreme take on this:

I use a 48 key keyboard (an OLKB Planck) which massively cuts down on hand travel and typing strain. Arrow and navigation keys, a numpad, all the function keys, every symbol I use whem programming, and various OS controls (volume, media controls, screen brightness, etc.) are all easily reachable without changing the position of my hands. I also chose to program all the modifier keys to work both as normal when held down and in a similar fashion to sticky keys when just tapped. For example, holding down shift and typing a letter works as normal, but hitting shift followed by a letter accomplishes the same result, meaning that capital letters and punctuation don't really interrupt the flow of typing or require chording.

I also have rather resistive keyswitches (nominally 185g, ~170g in actuality) which was of ergonomic benefit to me. I wouldn't expect it to help most people, but it helped me learn to type without bottoming out the switches. Starting out, the heavier springs caught me before reaching the bottom. Now I type in a much gentler fashion, even if peak force is greater than on a standard keyboard.

Moving down to 48 keys can seem intimidating, but I adjusted rather quickly. It only took me about a couple weeks to become comfortable with the layout changes (staggered keys to a grid layout and Workman instead of QWERTY). I believe that part of the reason it was such an easy transition was because I changed the layout whenever I had trouble adjusting to it. I had wanted to place the underscore on the same key as F in a QWERTY layout to make typing snake_case identifiers easier, but kept hitting the adjacent equals key instead. I could have pushed through it, but I embraced what my brain clearly felt was right whenever a similar thing happened and picked up the layout much quicker than I expected.

Another common concern is losing competence with a normal keyboard or standard layout, but at least in my case that hasn't been an issue. I can switch back and forth between a 2013 Macbook QWERTY keyboard and my customized one with no issues, and I often switch from QWERTY to Workman on my laptop depending on how much I'm writing. Occasionally I'll switch layouts mid-sentence when I realize I'll be going into more depth than I expected.

Re: Ask HN: What ergonomic solutions are you using?

#34

Post by pasbesoin »

I lowered my desks so that I am sitting with my thighs horizontal (feet flat on the floor) and my forearms horizontal.

I refuse to use keyboards that have palmrests that reach far enough to negatively impact my wrists. I also greatly prefer palm rests that have a rounded front edge.

At the same time, when using a traditional computer keyboard (not a laptop), I have a palmrest that lines up with the heels of my palms.

I switched to lower profile keys that have accurate and comfortable registration.

Back when I was in cubeland, I deliberately got up and moved around every half hour or so, unless I managed to gain intent focus (not so easy, in cubeland).

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