When my wife and I moved out of our last apartment and into our first real house, I was thrilled. It was a three-bedroom manufactured home and since there were only the two of us, I had a room that I could dedicate to being my home office and my wife had one to use as a crafts/sewing room. My wife’s crafts/sewing room also doubled as the spare bedroom when one of our handicapped children came home to spend a weekend with us. I have never had a room of my own before to outfit as a home office. I was determined to make my home office as comfortable as possible for me since I would be spending ten hours or more in it everyday-reading, researching, writing, talking on the telephone, etc. For the first time, I really started thinking about ergonomics as I designed and built my home office.

Ergonomics is a word derived from two Greek words: ergon, meaning work, and nomoi, meaning natural laws. Ergonomics is the science of work and a person’s relationship to that work. Ergonomics is one of those catch phrases that everyone uses these days, everyone from health professionals to office furniture salespersons. For the health professionals it has very specific meaning while for others it can mean anything under the sun. The IES (International Ergonomics Society) defines it this way, "ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance." Let us keep things simple. Ergonomics is the science of making things comfortable. It also makes things efficient. In addition, when you think about it, comfort is another way of making things efficient. However for simplicity, ergonomics makes things comfortable and efficient. Ergonomics takes place within the human-machine interface. Yeah, I’m hitting you with more jargon but the human-machine interface is simply the place where a human being and a machine interact. For example, in a computer equipped home office, the human-machine interface would include items like your office chair, desk, keyboard, mouse, etc.

We spend most of our time at the computer. Therefore, in this article, I will concentrate on what you need to know in order to set up an ergonomic computer station. Some of the basic concepts that you need to remember are

• The first thing that you need to remember is that ergonomics is very personal and what may work for one user may not be right for you.
• Never purchase a computer desk that doesn’t have a keyboard tray that allow you to adjust the height and angle of the keyboard
• Never buy a desk where you will have to place the keyboard and mouse on top of the desk
• Never purchase a desk that forces you to place the monitor above your head. A monitor should be placed at eye level
• Never buy an office chair that forces you to sit in a rigid upright position or one that forces you to lean forward

There are four places where a human interface with a monitor, the keyboard, the mouse, the office chair, and the office lighting.

• The monitor should be position on the desktop to minimize reflective glare from windows and light sources. If possible, position the monitor at a 90º angle to windows and other light sources
• The monitor should be a minimum of 20" from the viewer
• Position the monitor so that the center of the screen is at a 15º down angle from your eyes with your neck bent slightly and with your head perpendicular to the floor. Use a monitor riser if necessary to achieve these angles.
• Align the monitor with the keyboard and mouse
• The monitor’s refresh rate should be set to a minimum 70Hz to minimize eye strain caused by monitor flicker

• A home office should be moderately bright, like the brightness of a sunny day when sunglasses aren’t required
• Luminaries producing 20 to 50 Foot Candle are excellent light sources
• Luminaries should be placed above and slightly to the rear of the operator
• A mixture of incandescent and fluorescent lighting works best to eliminate flicker
• Never ever use task lighting for computer work

• The keyboard drawer should be slightly lower than the operators elbows
• Position the keyboard at a slightly negative angle so the operators wrists remain straight while typing
• Never use the built-in keyboard supports to raise the back of the keyboard. Positioning the keyboard at a positive angle places the wrist in an unnatural position and is the primary cause of repetitive stress injuries

• Place the mouse on the same level as the keyboard tray
• Place the mouse within the keyboard arc so that you can reach it and control it while rotating your lower arm at the elbow
• Use your forearm to control the mouse, not your wrist. Controlling the mouse with wrist movement is another cause of repetitive stress injuries

• The office chair should be equipped with adjustable arm rests which are to be used when typing
• The height of the chair should be adjusted so that your feet rest flatly on the floor at all times
• The chair’s lumbar support should be positioned slightly below the waist line
• The chair’s seat should be positioned so that there are 1" to 3" between the edge of the seat and the back of the knees
• The chair should be high-backed so your shoulder blades are supported

• Sit so that your hips are slightly higher than your knees when your feet are flat on the floor
• Don’t let your feet remain in one position for too long. Move them around often. Use a foot rest if you have one, but use it only part of the time and never ever cross your ankles
• Lean you chair back support back so you are reclining at an angle of 100° to 130°. Leaning back reduces the pressure on the hips. Just make sure that your chair still provides good lumbar and shoulder support while tilted back at that angle
• Let your upper arms hang at a natural angle from the shoulders while your lower arms rest easily on the arm rests
• Keep your wrist straight
• Your head should be held perpendicular to the floor
• Take frequent breaks. Get up. Move around. Stretch.

When it comes to ergonomic office chairs, I highly recommend the High Back Ergonomic Leather Chair #50456 sold online by Furniture National Business. This is a chair that lists for $525 but sells for $249 plus a $49 delivery charge, That may seem pricey for a chair but, personally, I’d rather spend my money on a good chair than give it to a chiropractor.

Maintain good posture at all times

The office chair

The mouse

The keyboard and keyboard tray

Lighting

The monitor