A: Ergonomics is simply the science of studying how people work. Obviously, a big focus of ergonomics is helping people work safely and avoid injury, but it’s about a lot more than that. A lot of bad “ergonomic” products have been built because they focus only on reducing injury risk. “Designing for the way that people work” also means making work more fun, more comfortable, and more efficient. I believe that it’s important to focus on the complete work experience to have a truly successful ergonomic design. A: I’d always been interested in ergonomics, but never knew much about it until I started working as a mechanical designer. At that point, I was spending eight hours a day on the computer doing CAD work and my shoulder was in constant pain from using the mouse all the time. Unfortunately, I’d done some damage before I started doing some research on ergonomics to understand what was going on. With what I’d learned, I made a few simple workstation changes and it made a big difference in my comfort level. I was able to continue working. After my work experience, I went to graduate school at UC Berkeley. My research there focused on input device design and I began studying in the Ergonomics program, which is a shared program between UC Berkeley Engineering and UCSF Medical School. Between the coursework I was doing, the literature I was reading, and the information I needed (and was generating) to improve my designs—I really learned a lot about ergonomics and computer use. A: The ergonomics program I graduated from is pretty well respected. When Microsoft Hardware had an opening, they asked my research advisor for help in locating a good design ergonomist. As I mentioned, my Ph.D. research was aimed directly at ergonomic design in input devices, so my background made me a natural fit. I have been in my role at Microsoft since 2004 as an Ergonomist and User Researcher for the Hardware Group. I am responsible for providing ergonomic expertise and championing the user experience to the development teams. My function really helps us deliver comfortable hardware products that enhance productivity and the overall user experience. A: People should care about finding a mouse and keyboard that works well for their bodies and their workstation. Sometimes that means that you need a small mouse to fit your small hand, and sometimes that means you need a split keyboard to help put you in a neutral posture. The important thing is to adapt your workspace to you, rather than forcing yourself into a workspace that just doesn’t fit you. Take time to find the right equipment and don’t settle for what you have lying around or what came with your computer. This’ll help you to be more comfortable and productive, enjoy working with your computer more, and avoid injuries that are much easier to prevent than they are to treat. A: They’re mainly soft tissue injuries that build up over time. A lot of people immediately think “carpal tunnel syndrome” when they think about computer-related injuries, but the truth is that carpal tunnel problems are fairly rare. It’s much more common to see neck and shoulder problems like what I suffered from. What’s tricky about these injuries is that they develop slowly over time so you can’t point to any one thing that caused it. When it is hard to identify the cause, you may attribute the pain you’re feeling to something else. By the time you’ve identified the source of your pain, things are usually pretty far along so it’s very important to make changes quickly once you notice pain associated with any task. Obviously, the best route is to properly set up every workstation you use and avoid these problems to begin with. It’s a big challenge for me to convince healthy people to pay attention to this stuff because they’re not currently having problems and tend to believe that their keyboard or workstation is “good enough.” But that’s often not the case, and it can take a painful, debilitating injury (or knowing someone who has one) before people get passionate about making positive changes. I’m not expecting the same passion that I have from everyone, but I’ll be happy if I can convince people to pay attention to the basics every time they set up a computer. A: The Comfort Curve and Natural products are difference-makers because they’ve been designed with an understanding of the way that people work and the risk factors associated with injury. People have been studying this stuff for a really long time—the first idea for a split keyboard was published in the 1920s! So, our designs are based on solid data and models that have stood up to the test of time. But in the end, the proof is really in the comfort that the designs deliver to the people who use them. The Natural design has been out long enough that some really good studies have been done to evaluate it. In 1999, the Natural design was shown to reduce pain for people who used it. In 2003, the Natural design was shown to be effective at both preventing and treating injury. The authors concluded the Natural keyboard “was associated with improvement of baseline wrist and carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms,” and only the Natural design “demonstrated a significant effect on the incidence of musculoskeletal symptoms.” So, it’s great to see that the principles we used in designing the Natural products are actually delivering great benefit to the people who use them. A: It all starts with research to understand the ways that people work. That information allows us to highlight risk factors and come up with designs to improve the situation. Once we know what we’re trying to improve, we start brainstorming a bunch of different ideas on how to make it better. We then make models of incorporating these ideas and begin rigorous testing. We put the models in front of people to make sure that they actually like them and what makes each one good or bad and comfortable or uncomfortable. We take that feedback and refine the models—incorporating all of the positively tested features into the next round of models. We often repeat this phase several times until we have the data to show we are headed in a promising direction. Additionally, we always include the best existing product (either from our line or the competition’s) in the round of testing to ensure what we are delivering performs better than what is currently available. Once we have two to three concepts that we feel good about, we’ll take them into a lab and have people use the products while we measure their posture, performance, preference, and other factors. Finally, we use this information to select the concept that delivers the best overall experience for the user. A: I can’t comment on the specific designs I’m working on, but the one thing you can count on is that we’ll continue to improve our knowledge of what makes a keyboard and mouse better. I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to work with some of the top universities in basic research and design evaluation. Our goal continues to be to understand how to make working at the computer a more comfortable, more enjoyable, and more efficient experience.