Originally posted on January 18, 2010 @ 8:36 am
I know we travel a lot with our laptops, and wherever we end up, we usually have no control as to how we position our laptops, and we don’t have a choice if we end up in a non-ergonomic setup. This usually ends with us being reduced to a screaming contorted ball of pain. Personally, I am taking the time to set up a nice, comfortable working area at home. I use my laptop as my main computer, and back when I was using an Asus Eee, I was used to just setting it up wherever I can. I usually work on the bed – which explains the typos of posts past, but that’s another story – which is in no way comfortable or safe for the laptop.
For the last two weeks, I’ve been slowly setting up a home office of sorts. I’ve repurposed an old unused desk as the workstation, but it’s too high and I am looking into using a USB keyboard to reduce stress. Why use a separate keyboard, you ask? The laptop violates a basic ergonomic principle – the monitor and the laptop should be separate.
From Ergo In Demand:
With a fixed design, if the keyboard is in an optimal position for the user, the screen isn’t, and if the screen is optimal the keyboard isn’t going to be placed properly. Even contemporary laptop designs fail to satisfy this basic ergonomic positioning requirement, which means that users must pay special attention to how they use their laptop in order to avoid muscular-skeletal disorders, headaches, fatigue, and similar complaints that result from non-ergonomic computer use.
What about you guys? Do you have a home laptop setup or do you just set up anywhere you feel like it? Tell me about it in the comments.