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That is not entirely true. Our head isn't mounted on our torso, it's mounted on our neck which can swivel! That's why you don't have to hold a book or your mo

That is not entirely true. Our head isn't mounted on our torso, it's mounted on our neck which can swivel! That's why you don't have to hold a book or your mobile phone or tablet at eye level. Also, many marvelous masterpieces have been created by painters working with an easel, where the requirement of having to lift their arms doesn't seem to have been too much of a distraction. If you really want to interact with a horizontal input device and a vertical output device, mice are not the only option. Pen tablets like those made by Wacom come to mind. EDIT: Also check out the BendDesk which tries to address the horizontal/vertical issue: http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/benddesk http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/benddesk

Derbasti 16y ago
True indeed. But painting involves steady motion of the hand whereas interaction with computers requires much less motion and thus is far more straining for our arms. Basically, it all revolves around strain: We don't want to strain our arms by holding something up in the air for a long time and we don't want to strain out neck by holding the head in an imbalanced position for a long time. As long as the head can sit more or less balanced on the neck, we are fine. Hence, if we sit back, the comfortable position for the head is to look slightly downwards compared to the rest of the body. However, the head actually is still upright, only the body is at an angle. Of course, we can still move our eyes without straining the neck muscles. We are fine with looking something like 45° downwards. (Actually, we are most comfortable with looking at the ground a few dozen meters/feet away. That is the natural looking angle.) Hence, monitors should sit slightly below eye level (for practical reasons, they usually extend from there to desktop level). Manual input devices should be located slightly below elbow level one forearm-length in front of the belly. It will be interesting, which manual input devices will sit there in the future. But I would guess that they will always sit there, and not on the display.
- julian37 16y ago
  Point taken, but I think there's a difference between casual and professional, extended use. For casual use I can see touch taking over more and more, and for professional use - such as for graphic designers or compositors - the mouse isn't always the best input device to begin with.
vacri 16y ago
"That's why you don't have to hold a book or your mobile phone or tablet at eye level." Bad ergonomics though. I actually got what I call a reading injury. 45 minute walk to work gets boring after a while, and after getting tinnitus (which when it was bad is /really/ bad) I was paranoid about listening to music or podcasts. So I read a book on my walk. Walking plus reading = bad for your neck. Took a couple of weeks of not read-walking to get my neck back to not hurting. That's an extreme example though. However, even in simpler terms, your neck is not made to be held at an angle for extended times. When you curl up on the couch with a book, you'll usually have good support. Do that same angle in an office chair 40 hours a week and you'll start running into problems.

Derbasti 16y ago

True indeed. But painting involves steady motion of the hand whereas interaction with computers requires much less motion and thus is far more straining for our arms. Basically, it all revolves around strain: We don't want to strain our arms by holding something up in the air for a long time and we don't want to strain out neck by holding the head in an imbalanced position for a long time. As long as the head can sit more or less balanced on the neck, we are fine. Hence, if we sit back, the comfortable position for the head is to look slightly downwards compared to the rest of the body. However, the head actually is still upright, only the body is at an angle. Of course, we can still move our eyes without straining the neck muscles. We are fine with looking something like 45° downwards. (Actually, we are most comfortable with looking at the ground a few dozen meters/feet away. That is the natural looking angle.) Hence, monitors should sit slightly below eye level (for practical reasons, they usually extend from there to desktop level). Manual input devices should be located slightly below elbow level one forearm-length in front of the belly. It will be interesting, which manual input devices will sit there in the future. But I would guess that they will always sit there, and not on the display.

julian37 16y ago
Point taken, but I think there's a difference between casual and professional, extended use. For casual use I can see touch taking over more and more, and for professional use - such as for graphic designers or compositors - the mouse isn't always the best input device to begin with.

vacri 16y ago

"That's why you don't have to hold a book or your mobile phone or tablet at eye level." Bad ergonomics though. I actually got what I call a reading injury. 45 minute walk to work gets boring after a while, and after getting tinnitus (which when it was bad is /really/ bad) I was paranoid about listening to music or podcasts. So I read a book on my walk. Walking plus reading = bad for your neck. Took a couple of weeks of not read-walking to get my neck back to not hurting. That's an extreme example though. However, even in simpler terms, your neck is not made to be held at an angle for extended times. When you curl up on the couch with a book, you'll usually have good support. Do that same angle in an office chair 40 hours a week and you'll start running into problems.