Bent necks and twisted wrists: Exploring the impact of touch-screen tablets on the posture of office workers

Abstract

Touch-screen tablets are becoming increasingly popular as office work tools. However, as current health and safety regulations applied to office equipment do not cover tablets, the importance of understanding their impact on the posture of office workers increases. As the research on ergonomic issues related to tablet use is scarce, especially in the context of office work, we explore, through an online questionnaire, semi–structured interviews and observations with postural analysis, how and where office workers use tablets and what potential posture–related issues could arise as a result. Our findings show that the lack of screen adjustability and the virtual keyboard encourage poor posture and tablet use could lead to discomfort in a number of body areas, especially the neck and wrists.

Affiliations

University College London

Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

Contributors

Katarzyna Stawarz

Rachel Benedyk

Conference

Publication date: September 2013

Publication date (Print): September 2013

Pages: 1-6

ID: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2013.50

Copyright statement: © Katarzyna Stawarz et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. 27th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2013), Brunel University, London, UK

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: 27th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2013)

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 27

Conference location: Brunel University, London, UK

Conference date: 9 - 13 September 2013

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2013)

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2013.50

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing