Where Human Meets Machine
Next time you go to Disneyland, show your appreciation to Mickey Mouse and all his friends. The people inside those costumes work for low wages and risk a variety of injuries resulting from costume design. In fact, these costumes sound so awful, they warrant the title of “ergonomic nightmare.”
Excerpts from OSHA records show high rate [...]
High heels are truly an ergonomic nightmare from which some women refuse to awaken. Any podiatrist will tell you that high heels aren’t designed for walking.
Great! Women’s shoes aren’t designed for walking…yay…we live in the 21st century!
Why high heels are so bad:
Wearing high heels cause the foot slides forward, cramming the toes into [...]
Sitting on the beach all day getting a tan may be your dream job…but is lifeguarding an ergonomic nightmare?
Decades ago, the image of bronzed lifeguards basking in the sun while sitting on simple red chairs was an icon of what Southern California beach life was all about.
Then emerged the dangers of skin cancer, along with [...]
Powering up your latest gadget often involves an adventure into a hard to reach crevice, maneuvering through tangles of cords and awkwardly shaped plastic squares to cram a couple of metal prongs into plastic slots.
under my desk [...]
Why is every remote completely different? There is absolutely no coherent design standardization of remote controls. This is a problem because new remotes come into our lives so often, and each time we are forced to reconcile with the paradigm shattering design of our new remote.
Usually we don’t even try to learn what most of [...]
If you’ve ever been a spectator at a sporting event, I probably don’t have to convince you that bleachers are an ergonomic nightmare. A couple hours of sitting on cold hard metal with absolutely no back support make you go home feeling like you played in the game yourself. As a result, the low [...]
Have you ever tried to use someone else’s can opener? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like every can opener design is a little bit different, and getting that interlocking gear blade thingy to line up just right is never as easy as it should be.
After fiddling with the unfamiliar can opener for [...]
Drivers: What do you do when you see a biker pedaling along ahead of you only a few feet to your right or even in the middle of the lane? First you mutter to yourself, “damn bikers, always in my way.” Then you either creep along behind him, holding up traffic in the process, [...]
I would like to preface this post by saying, “I love my iPod.â€Â You probably do too, and want to kill me for naming it ergonomic nightmare of the week. But the things we love and use most are the things of which we should be most careful, ergonomically speaking.
Loud music and portable electronics are [...]
Christmas is a time of togetherness and giving and joy and all that good stuff. But Christmas time can also be an ergonomic nightmare. Think about it:
Christmas travel (crowds, lost baggage, lines, uncomfortable seating, stress)
Bending down to cut the Christmas tree and awkwardly strapping it to the car
Getting up on a teetering ladder [...]
