Regarding the joystick, awhile back when I was running the Bay Area Motion Graphics group we got a variety of vendors to give us a variety of devices and had folks test them.

The joystick was one of the devices that stood out… sort of. We bought a few of them here at Digital Anarchy and ultimately stopped using them. Less stress on the wrist, but it puts a lot of stress on your arm/shoulder. An improvement, but ultimately it just moves the stress to a different area.

Patrick, I disagree with Shelby’s advice regarding devices. I don’t think there is such a thing as a good mouse or trackpad when it comes to RSI. Tablets when positioned and used correctly are the only thing I’ve found to really help with my RSI problems. Whenever I switch back to a mouse or have to use trackpad on laptop it becomes a problem. In terms of preventing RSI, switching devices is probably better than doing nothing, but once you have serious RSI problems it becomes very clear what devices help and which aggravate it.

I realize everyone’s mileage will vary… but  once you get used to a tablet as a mouse replacement (NOT as a paint tool) and get a proper chair/workstation setup, it’s amazing the difference it makes. Part of the trick is having adjustable arms on the chair (I’ve got a Steelcase chair which is great), so that your arm is lightly resting on the arm of the chair while you’re using the tablet and you can configure things so you can sit upright and not have to extend your arm.

I use a Wacom 4x6 for my 1920x1080 monitor. This is not great as a paint tablet for that size monitor, but as a mouse replacement it kicks ass. I also LOVE the Microsoft  Natural Ergonomic 4000 keyboard. Excellent keyboard.

If you don’t have the space to have 3 desks and 3 types of chairs, getting up and stretching frequently is extremely helpful. So yeah, changing your position frequently is a great idea, but that can be done through stretching as well as different types of workstations. Yoga and learning how to stretch properly will help considerably.

Cheers,

Jim

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Jim Tierney

President

Digital Anarchy

For some time at  Pixar we had a full-time Ergonomics expert named Shelby.