| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 15, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| TECH BUYING GUIDE -- DESKTOPS
Peripherals: Who Says Comfort Is a Luxury? Face it, with more work being done on computers, and with the Internet replacing TV as the evening's entertainment of choice, you're spending a lot of time sitting in front of this generation's version of the boob tube. You might as well be comfortable. To help you, we asked a couple of experts to explain why you should consider paying more for your chair, mouse, and keyboard than you just did for that spiffy new PC. Even though most jobs require you to spend more time sitting in your desk chair than you spend in your bed at night, people still put more effort into shopping for a new mattress than they do for a chair. You might want to rethink that. Occupational therapist Linda J. Johnson of Sebastopol, Calif., says that people should be able to easily adjust their chair's height, tilt, back, seat pan, and armrest height independently of each other. That's a tall order for most chairs to fill. Some adjust well for short users, but they can't accommodate a body that's more than six feet tall. Others work perfectly for people who are average weight but are the wrong pick for heavier users. ''When you buy a pair of shoes, you try on quite a few to figure out what fits, what's functional,'' Johnson says. ''You need to try on chairs for the same reason.'' Expect to spend at least $400 for an ergonomically correct chair, though, and double or even triple that price tag for a chair with all the bells and whistles that can keep your body properly aligned. Johnson and Dan Kelso, an ergonomist, both recommend trying out chairs that are made by Steelcase, BodyBilt, Neutral Posture, and Office Master. Kelso's company, Environmental & Occupational Risk Management in Sunnyvale, Calif., provides ergonomic expertise to a number of companies located in Silicon Valley. What about those cool $1,000 Herman Miller Aeron chairs that are all the rage these days? The manufacturer may have persuaded the Smithsonian Institution to display its chair as an example of modern ergonomic furniture, but both experts scoff at the techy contraption. ''What a joke,'' says Kelso, who complains that the chair's seat and back do not adjust independently and that the solid frame that supports its webbed seat can cut off circulation at the back of a sitter's legs. ''I do not recommend it.''  FUNKY. Once you're seated in style, it's time to pay attention to the creature comforts for your fingers and wrists. That traditional keyboard that came packaged with your PC couldn't have been more poorly designed. All the keys are centered directly in front of you in a space no more than a foot wide. That forces you to pull your arms and shoulders toward the center of your body all day long. It would be better, experts say, if you could reach straight out from either side of your body to type.Keyboard design has gotten funkier over the past few years as engineers try to achieve that elusive golden posture. One of the most popular ergonomic keyboards--Microsoft's Keyboard Elite--helps somewhat, Johnson says, by giving you about four more inches of workspace. But the design pushes the mouse farther away than it should be, so she doesn't recommend the gadget, which costs about $50 per keyboard. Instead, Johnson suggests looking at either the contoured keyboard, which is made by Kinesis Corp., or one from Comfort Keyboard Co. At around $300, these are dear compared with their more pedestrian cousins, but their design is so revolutionary that dyed-in-the-wool gearheads won't mind. The Kinesis keyboard features two large scoops loaded with keys. The Comfort ''system'' is a three-section contraption that can be moved into a variety of layouts and then locked into place. Both keyboards take some getting used to, so experts recommend borrowing or leasing a few fancy ones before investing in just one. A FIT MOUSE. The last comfort factor to take into consideration is your pointing device--that's ergo-speak for the mouse. Don't set your mouse on top of a stack of books that's a foot away from the keyboard or at an odd angle to make room for your computer speakers. Put it directly next to your keyboard on a pad that will allow it to roll smoothly. And buy a mouse that's the right size for your hand, especially if you have unusually small or large hands. Contour Design Inc. sells Perfit Mouse in several sizes for around $100 each.  And if you do a lot of work using a mouse, you should consider investing in a trackball. Don't choose one that lets you roll the ball with a single finger--that's just asking for carpal tunnel trouble. Instead, look at a trackball such as the $100 Kensington TurboMouse that requires using your entire hand. It might feel like a lot of wasted movement, but better that than ending up with aching wrists, shoulders, and neck, right?By Janet Rae-Dupree in San Mateo, Calif. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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RELATED ITEMS Why Pay More? Well... TABLE: A PC for Every Shopper Product Profile: NEC Z1 PHOTO: NEC Z1 Peripherals: Who Says Comfort Is a Luxury? TABLE: The Forgotten Peripherals PHOTO: Contoured Keyboard from Kinesis PHOTO: Kensington's ExpertMouse Take Two Tranquilizers before You Network at Home INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
