Tag: Ergonomics

The Paradox of Specialization, Too Little and Too Much Are Both Fragile and Unusable

Handles: How Do Companies Decide On The Design?

I originally started thinking about this while contemplating handles. Handles are something we ignore when they fit our hands well, and hate when they don’t. Yet, I cannot find much information on study of handle design. There are specialty handles, like various grips for fencing weapons. There are ergonomic handles for specialty carpenter’s hammers.

But when it comes to the simple round handle on many hand tools, I don’t find much information on the design of those handles.

Then I realized this sort of makes sense. Yes, at one time it might have been possible to go to a local woodturner, explain what a person wanted in weight, balance, size, and so on, and get a good fit for their own preferences.

Now, most handles are mass produced. There’s the occasional shovel, broom, landscaping tool, or gardening tool with wooden handles. But I think they are becoming rarer.

Once a station is set up to mold handles out of resin or plastic, handles can be produced far faster than any woodturner could produce them.

Once that station is set up.

Getting to that point is a long process of decades of scientific and chemical research to create the resins and plastics. And decades of scientific, chemical, thermodynamic, and mechanical research to know how to create the molds, heat the plast or resin up to the correct temperature, inject it, take it out of the mold, and so on .

This is an example of overspecialization. It does what it does, very well. But it can’t be easily changed to anything else without a new mold being made. And there is a long supply chain between the natural precursors of resin or plastic being gathered, and the resin or plastic coming into existence.

On the far end of under specialization, there is a hunk of wood and a knife. Yes, a person probably could make a handle for an implement out of that. It would take quite a while, and probably be fairly crude.

Another example: Writing Programs

Another example is writing programs. Microsoft Word tries to be all things to all people. And it is amazingly annoying and bloated because of that. Scrivener is so specialized, I have tried to use it and like it several times. But it is just a bit too specialized for the more general purpose use I want to use it for. And LaTex is definitely too specialized.

The Simpler It Is, The Closer You Look, Part 2

Humans do not think like machines. Machines do not process information like humans.

Which is obvious, yet the results are often not considered.

Making a machine interface that is intuitive to humans is really difficult. Presenting complex information in way that is easy for humans to read is really difficult. Here are some of the things which have to be considered:

  • How is the information organized?
  • What information are we talking about? Are we presenting flight schedules or grocery shopping lists?
  • Do regular users and new users have different concerns?
  • Do we need to emphasize if anything has changed from last time?
  • How can the information be presented so the expected reader can easily find what they think is most important to find, while also letting the publisher or organizer highlight what they think is most important to present?

Those issues are things I came up with just thinking about it as I’m writing this. There were and still are whole entire disciplines and professions devoted to this.

When I find something which is intuitive to use, whether it’s gas pump prices, a website, or the dashboard of a car, I try to stop and admire what was achieved. I also try to see what I might learn. If there’s a lot of information shown in an intuitive and easy-to-understand manner, someone put a lot of work into that.

Thoughts About Technology: You Can’t Take the Humanity Out of Being Human, Physicality

I think part of the appeal of technology as magic is the hope that with enough technology, the messiness of being human goes away.

Except, it doesn’t go away. We’re all still human.

There are ways in which the brain and the body map onto each other which are unavoidable. I’ve read multiple articles about people blind since birth still “talking with their hands” when describing something to another person. There is still the need to show with the movements of the hands the movements of concepts in the brain.

In one of the early episodes of The Huberman Lab podcast, Huberman talks about stress. He says stress in the brain activates nerves for movement in the legs and the muscles used for speech. He notes this is why it is so common for people to say unfortunate things when they feel stressed. What he doesn’t note, but what appears in innumerable jokes, cartoons, and memes, is the need to pace back and forth when in an intense discussion.

There are also differences in typing something on a screen and writing it by hand on paper. It feels different as the writer, and research shows it activates different parts of the brain.

Being human means having a human body and being susceptible to the ways in which the body and the brain interact with each other and with the outside environment. We’re all always human. No amount of magic technology will change that.

Technician Tuesday: Some of the measurements for light

The human eye has a huge dynamic range for the amount of light our eyes can use. We can read in bright sunlight and most of us can read by candlelight. Yet the difference in the amount of light from those two source is almost ludicrous.

Trying to decide what light source to use by looking at specifications, instead of repeatedly buying-and-trying, is also almost ludicrous. There are multiple measurements used. The measurements don’t always measure the same things.

The best description I’ve seen recently is in the article “Lumens, Candela, & Lux” by Richard Nance, in the January 2023 issue of Guns & Ammo magazine.

(No, I still have not looked up how I should be citing my sources.)

For the terms lumens, candela, and lux,

  • lumens is how much light comes from a source,
  • candela is the intensity of the light in a chosen direction, and
  • lux is the amount of light on a surface when it’s a specific distance from the light source.

If I’m buying a light for my desk or nightstand, I’ll probably start looking for a lux specification. For portable lights like flashlights or worklights, I’ll look at both lumens and candela to see how much light there (theoretically) is and how focused that light should be. A small focused beam of light is great when I want to see tiny detail. A wider beam is better if I want a more panoramic view, such as if the power goes out and I want to see the entire room well enough to not run into the nearest table.

Light temperature is an entirely different topic.

And then . . . ugh. The article mentioned there was a flashlight standard, ANSI NEMA FL 1. I thought that would interesting to look at. And it was interesting, in a way that’s mildly frustrating and not at all what I expected. I’ll make that a part 2. There might be a part 3 where I post some good links I found about the flashlight standard which don’t cost at least five hundred dollars to view.

Technician Tuesday: Taking Breaks

Several weeks ago I wrote a post titled “Always Be Looking.” It was about how much of what I do isn’t new to the world, even though it might be new to me.

Last week I found another instance of that. Years ago I read the 20-20-20 rule of taking 20 seconds every 20 minutes to look at something at least 20 feet away while working on a computer*. Last week I found a suggestion for taking breaks in the November/December 2022 issue of Handwoven magazine. Just like being hunched over and staring at a computer screen, being hunched over and staring and warp and weft threads can also cause physical problems if it’s done without breaks.

The suggestions for taking a break in that magazine article are more detailed than just the 20-20-20 rule. In addition to looking away from the work every 20 minutes to do something else which takes a few seconds, the article recommended stepping away completely from the work, for a few minutes, every hour. I think that will be easier for me to remember.

(The specific article is “Healthy Weavers: Using Ergonomics for Comfortable Weaving” by Cynthia Evetts and Tina Fletcher.)

* The 20-20-20 rule really does help my eyes. More than that, it helps my whole upper body relax. I recently heard on a podcast that a focused narrow gaze will tend to make us more mentally focused and anxious, while a panoramic gaze will tend to make us more relaxed and less focused. Maybe the relaxation is something to do with that.

Technician Tuesday: Keyboards

I’m not going to get into the debate about QWERTY key layout versus other ways of laying out keys.

It does make a difference to me what types of keys I type on. Broadly, there are membrane and mechanical keys. I like mechanical keys, although I’m not familiar enough with the different types of mechanical keys to know which of those I like. I know I tend to be one of those jerks who like the clacky keys which irritate everyone else, but there’s probably some silent keys I can live with too.

Aside from QWERTY and the types of keys, there’s also variations in how the keyboard is laid out: small keys, big keys, keys in horizontal rows, keyboard split in the middle so your hands don’t change but your shoulders and elbows and wrists do, and keyboards that let you change the position of your hands.

Here are a couple of sites I’ve found, there’s lots others out there. I’m not sponsored by either and I’m not an expert on sites, so maybe there’s better out there. But here’s two I’ve started with:

Mechanical Keyboards

Keebmaker

Yes, mechanical keyboards can get pricey. Sore hands and wrists aren’t cheap.

Mindset Monday: Don’t let technology destroy your physiology

I’m not merely a brain. I have a body too. Technology is usually designed to be useful in the moment for its purpose. It’s not designed to keep the user’s body in good shape during an extended period of use.

I’ve been working at a computer a lot the last couple of weeks, and I can tell. I’m taking extra time to stretch my back and shoulders, and to rest my eyes.

My goal when using technology is to get done with a project and move on with other parts of my life, pain free.