Home Office Components & Accessories Tips and Tricks

Regardless of whether in the office or home office – the furnishing should always be ergonomic in order to ensure sustainable, productive and, above all, healthy work. Find out here which basics of ergonomic office equipment you should definitely consider and be inspired by our product recommendations on the subject of ergonomics in the workplace.

The wrong equipment can make you sick

Around two-thirds of employees who work at a computer workstation complain of back problems, even though ergonomics are definitely important in most offices these days. In the home office of many employees, the equipment is generally poorer. Damage to the spine, chronic back pain or eye discomfort can result from improper workplace furnishings. But what should you watch out for so that your body doesn’t suffer while working at home?

The two most important pieces of furniture are probably the desk and the office chair. However, an ergonomically designed workplace is much more than just the harmonious combination of an office swivel chair and an ergonomic desk. Many other components such as monitor , keyboard and mouse play a decisive role in the workstation in order to avoid damage.

In general, it is advisable to pay attention to the following criteria when designing the workplace:

an optimal seat height & seat width
enough work space & freedom of movement
height-adjustable desk & office chair
an adjustable monitor with a high-quality panel and the necessary seat spacing
a healthy upper body and leg posture
Sufficient lighting / daylight / avoidance of annoying reflections
ensure an optimal temperature (20-22 °) and regular fresh air supply through ventilation
low noise level
ergonomic work equipment (mouse, keyboard)
plants

The desk – the right height is crucial

As with the chair, height adjustability also plays a decisive role in the work table in order to enable ergonomic work. In addition to this height adjustability, an ergonomic work table should also offer enough freedom for the legs and have a sufficiently large work surface. Not only to accommodate all work materials, but also to allow the arms to move freely when using the mouse and keyboard. The work surface of the table should not have any sharp edges and should not be reflective if possible. Tables with integrated cable management prevent the annoying mess of cables.

Yaasa Desk Pro 2 sit-stand workstations: variety that is good for the body

The human body is not designed to sit for hours. But the jobs that predominantly work while sitting continue to increase. Many, especially older, office desks are static and cannot be adjusted in any way. The Yaasa Desk Pro II sit-stand desks, on the other hand, can be easily adjusted in height at the push of a button. With a simple operation of the adjustment handle, the table slides up and down. This means that you can vary between sitting and standing positions as you like. One-sided stress on the joints can therefore be ruled out due to this constant change and everyone can adjust their individually suitable position.

Desk converters make the old desk ergonomic

With the desk converters, you can make your existing desk ergonomic. Simply place the converter on your old desk and transform it into a continuously adjustable sitting and standing workstation. The advantages are obvious: you can continue to use your old desk, do not have to make an expensive new purchase and still benefit from the same ergonomic advantages of a completely new desk.

Thanks to the extremely stable construction of the desk converters, you can even lean against the converter without it immediately threatening to tip over from the table. In addition, the table converters do not take up any space, as they move in a straight line up and down. The footprint of your table remains unchanged. The desk converters are also available as a dual version, on which you can place two monitors at the same time. Due to the large selection of different sizes, you too will find a model that best fits your desk.

The office chair – should adapt flexibly to the body

In many cases, complaints can be traced back to the wrong office chair . Many employees sit on it for around 40 hours a week. That is why the work chair at home should first be subjected to a critical examination when it comes to optimizing the home office from an ergonomic point of view. First and foremost, it should be able to be optimally adapted and adjusted to the human body. To ensure this, a modern office chair should have the following properties as far as possible:

An anatomically designed seat with upholstery
5 rollers for flexible positioning
Easy height adjustment
Anatomical, high and adjustable backrest with lumbar pad
Synchronous mechanism with a large angle of inclination of 30 °
Easily adjustable counter pressure for seat dynamics or automatic weight adjustment
lockable backrest in every position
adjustable armrests in height, width and depth
Seat depth adjustability
Seat tilt adjustability
breathable, antistatic padding and materials
intuitive ease of use
Seat depth suspension
Stability

Monitor – adjustable with an optimally readable panel

Flexible adaptability of the monitor

A work monitor should be adjustable in order to be able to adapt to the individual body constitution of the respective user. It should be able to be adjusted in height without great effort, and it should be rotatable, tiltable and swivelable. It should also be possible to adjust the screen steplessly downwards onto the table surface, since a look at the top line of characters well below eye level is easy on the eyes. Another useful feature is the so-called pivot function. Many models can be rotated from landscape to portrait format for professional use. This can be helpful, for example, if different applications are being run on the computer, e.g. B. Image editing and word processing.When word processing or when visiting websites, the portrait format is often an advantage, whereas a wide image is ideal for working with many windows.

The display should take the strain off the eyes

First and foremost, you should – in the truest sense of the word – keep in mind the challenges our eyes are exposed to every day at the computer workstation. By nature, our eyes are not designed to stare fixedly at an object for many hours. However, we should try to make the most of the circumstances and find ways and means to avoid eye wear and tear. The right office monitor can also help prevent headaches, migraines or exhaustion.

Brightness, contrast and colors

A bright, high-contrast and color-fast display relieves the eyes of a major burden. The brightness of the screen is measured in candelas per square meter (cd / m²). A sufficiently bright monitor should shine brightly at around 300 cd / m² in office rooms. This value can vary depending on the surrounding situation. If a lot of sunlight should enter the premises, matte displays are often an advantage as they can prevent annoying reflections.

Resolution – at least Full HD

The minimum standard for small to medium-sized monitors for the office area should now be Full HD (1920 * 1080 pixels). Graphics and fonts are displayed with sufficient clarity and can be easily read. However, if you only edit narrow tables and Word documents, the 16: 9 widescreen format of the Full HD resolution can also have a negative effect, because the height of the documents is thus slightly cropped and therefore becomes wider. A monitor with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and an exemplary resolution of 1680 * 1050 can provide a better overview when editing documents and calling up websites, but this is also a matter of taste. As a rule, the larger the monitor, the higher its resolution should be,so that the picture is not displayed blurred and pixelated.

Screen size

The screen size of an ergonomic business monitor can vary greatly depending on the area of ​​application. A minimum size of 21.5 inches should be planned for pure paperwork and internet use. Devices from 24 inches offer a little more overview. They give you additional work space, which makes it possible, for example, to place several windows next to each other. This can certainly increase labor productivity. If you need even more space, you can either operate 2 monitors next to each other or take a look at the so-called ultra-wide displays. With their 21: 9 format, they expand the picture similar to two screens placed side by side.

Keep the correct distance

The choice of the size of the monitor is related to the premises or the workplace. The larger the monitor, the greater the viewing distance that needs to be planned. As a rule of thumb, the viewing distance should be 1.2 times the display diagonal (1 inch = 2.54 centimeters). You can use this guide value as a rough guide before buying and roughly calculate the space required for each computer workstation. However, the eyesight differs from person to person and the display of the respective monitor is also relevant. You can sit a little closer in front of a razor-sharp screen than in front of a low-resolution one.

Viewing angle stability

A display with stable viewing angles can still be read correctly from different viewing angles and therefore offers more flexibility. The various display types differ greatly in terms of viewing angle stability. For some, the picture can be distorted and blurred at different viewing angles, and the colors also change. If the viewing angles are very low, comfortable work is hardly possible. Different panels are used depending on the type of use. If several people are looking at a picture at the same time, very high viewing angles are required. IPS panels are particularly suitable here. Even with two monitors placed next to each other or very large displays, the viewing angle stability plays a decisive role. For rather small monitors (up to about 24 inches),The viewing angles do not necessarily have to be very high that are constantly being looked at in the center. A cost / benefit analysis should be carried out here, because displays with high viewing angles are usually more expensive.

Monitor brackets – can adjust the height of a static monitor

Even if the monitor you are currently using does not yet meet the ergonomic requirements, you can make it more ergonomic by using special mounting systems. These brackets allow a previously static monitor to be flexibly adjusted in height, rotated, tilted and swiveled.

Keyboard – take pressure off the wrists

Along with the mouse, the keyboard is the most important input device. Both are operated continuously throughout the day and must therefore meet special ergonomic requirements. In this way constrained postures can be avoided, stress reduced and illnesses effectively prevented. Particularly common illnesses associated with keyboard and mouse are tendinitis, neck and back damage, and skin irritation. An office keyboard should easily meet the demands of everyday work and thus also places high demands on ergonomic aspects. Keyboards that are adjustable in their angle of inclination and offer sufficient space (5 to 10 cm depth) for the palms of the hands are important for this. Rubberized palm rests are advantageous,which optimally support the wrists.

The keyboard must be non-slip and must not move when you type. The lettering must be clearly legible and a matt material prevents annoying reflections; keyboards with poor contrast ratios are not recommended. A keyboard must not have any sharp edges and should have sufficiently large keys. Many ergonomic keyboards also have a split layout to improve the accessibility of the keys. Mechanical keyboards are particularly suitable for frequent writers, as they enable a higher typing speed thanks to their clean pressure points. In addition, the keys do not have to be fully pressed down as with a rubber membrane keyboard, which prevents finger fatigue.

Computer mouse – small but subtle differences make them ergonomic

Conventional computer mice force the operator to adopt an unnatural posture, which leads to physical discomfort. From the finger to the neck or back – the inconspicuous mouse can lead to a variety of complaints. In contrast to simple mice, some ergonomic mice are built vertically rather than horizontally. With a conventional mouse, the forearm lies unprotected on the table. The wrist bends upwards. An ergonomic mouse should support the wrist . Models with a vertical design work particularly well . They “educate” the user to adopt a natural posture, which spares the joints and tendons from being overstrained.

When you click, a very slight keystroke should be enough to trigger the desired action. This prevents the fingers from becoming exhausted. A mouse with a well thought-out design is generally more comfortable in the hand and also enables a more efficient way of working. Additional functions such as programmable and extended buttons make control even easier. A powerful sensor with sampling rates of 1,000 to 1,600 dpi enables precise control with minimal effort. Left-handers should make sure that the mouse is also optimized for use with the left hand. The cable should be long enoughin order not to restrict the user in his actions. Wireless models with Bluetooth are also practical in this context .

Headsets – should sit comfortably

Until now, they were indispensable in call centers, and they are now increasingly needed in home offices – headsets are one of the input devices used every day for many. Anyone who frequently has to make long phone calls will definitely benefit from using a headset. Because headsets are usually 6 to 10 times lighter than a standard telephone (handset). And when there is no receiver tucked between head and shoulders, nothing stands in the way of multitasking. Although the workplace ordinance has not yet explicitly included the headset, some aspects should be considered before buying. First of all you should get the weightkeep an eye. If you wear your headset continuously for several hours, you don’t want to have a block on your head. Because that will quickly take revenge and cause neck and headaches.

Fit and padding are also very important . Some headsets are too tight, too loose or chafe – rather unfavorable conditions for a pleasant working day. The material should be breathable and sweat repellent. For those who need to move around with the headset on, a wireless model is a requirement. The integrated noise canceling of the microphone is a must, especially in call centers . This is the only way to ensure perfect communication without disruptive background noise.