the exciting conclusion!

[zwol]

Last time on No User Serviceable Parts, zwol got halfway through installing a new keyboard tray on his desk before discovering that the electric drill's battery was dead. This morning, we tune back in to find the drill revitalized and the tray installed with only a few points of wishing for three hands, and no further demerits to award the manufacturer for penny-wise, installer-hostile design choices.

But the real question here is, how well does it improve the ergonomic situatiion? After a few hours of use, my preliminary verdict is: well enough that it's not going back to the store, but not so well that I abandon thoughts of an entirely new desk. On the up side, I can now sit up straight in my chair, with the screen at eye level, my arms at a natural angle while typing, and my feet on the floor. Which is what i was going for. On the down side, there's not quite enough space between the bottom of the keyboard tray and my thighs, and there's only just barely enough space between the top of the keyboard and the bottom of the desk for it to clear the steel bar that's under the front edge. More seriously, I have to reach a little further for the mouse than I'd like, and in order to get at all the keys on the keyboard I have to sit farther back from the monitor than I'm accustomed to. The monitor is on a swing arm, though, so that maybe can be fixed.

This episode's Extra Special Bonus Hate is not about the keyboard tray at all; it goes rather to whoever arranged to have the floor model of the shredder I bought yesterday (also at Staples) not match the one that came home! The floor model didn't have the major design flaw I was specifically trying to avoid, but the one that came home DID. Thus, unwanted trip back to the store today to exchange it. For the next beefier model up, which I took out of the box in the store and checked, and does not have the aforesaid design flaw.

I'd like to describe the design flaw, so that other people can identify and avoid it, but I don't think I can do it without pictures.

Comments

typing posture

[tkil.livejournal.com]

On the down side, there's not quite enough space between the bottom of the keyboard tray and my thighs, and there's only just barely enough space between the top of the keyboard and the bottom of the desk for it to clear the steel bar that's under the front edge.

Some people (myself included) simply don't have the body proportions for the "correct typing posture". Being long-limbed and short-torso'd means that the "relaxed 90° elbow" puts my hands in the middle of my thighs.

Having said that, I can definitely tell the difference when I've been typing on a square keyboard for a while, instead of on my primary desktop keyboard (a Kinesis Contoured, which I highly recommend). It's still higher than I would like, though.

jwz has sung the praises of the split keyboards (with each half of the keyboard attached to the arms of his work chair), but apparently those (and the parts to fix / remount them) are getting scarce:

http://jwz.livejournal.com/493388.html
http://jwz.livejournal.com/1040129.html
http://jwz.livejournal.com/1038478.html
http://jwz.livejournal.com/959824.html

Re: typing posture

[zwol.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted by those Kinesis keyboards myself, but I would want to try one out before purchasing. Maybe I'll see if my employer will lend me one for a while. Also, they definitely won't fit under that darn steel bar (3" tall, and there's only 2.5" of clearance).