Technology-driven Cumulative Trauma Disorders

This story from MSNBC discusses increases in carpal tunnel and tendinitis due to Blackberry use. An excerpt:

Hirsch, who said he has seen at least a couple of patients with injuries related to their PDA or thumb keyboard, said he tells patients to send short answers on the devices. "Many people who are traveling use their BlackBerry to save them time," he said. "Thumbs were not designed for individuals to do this without certain limits.

Another problem I've wondered about for a few years is whether there has been (or will be) an increase in trigger finger, arthritis of the hand, or similar cumulative trauma disorders along with the increased popularity (near ubiquity) of computer mice with scrolling wheels. After even just 10 or 15 minutes of intermittent scrolling while reading online articles, for example, the joint at my finger tip (the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint, to be exact) becomes sore. After a few hours, I start to notice pain at the base of my index finger.

The Harvard Vision Sciences Laboratory, however, recommends using the scroll wheel more (see tip #4), I assume because it eliminates the wrist-flicking motion of moving the mouse up and down the vertical scroll bar on the right side of most Windows and Macintosh applications. I don't really agree with them on that point. I do like tip #5, though--it suggests using keyboard shortcuts to eliminate mouse movements.

Bad Door Handles

Not like I'm the first person to ever be annoyed by unintuitive door handles, but these were especially annoying to me. As you can probably tell in the image (click on it for a larger image), the handles on either side of the door are the same. And to me, these handles afford to be pulled. They have curvy handles about 1.5" in diameter that are perfect for grasping.

These doors (which I found at Southdale Mall in Edina, MN) do open when pulled...from one direction. From the other direction, you have to push the doors to open them.

So, regardless of whether they afford to be pushed or pulled, the doors will inevitably be unusably. Their use in an inherent contradiction. The same exact design means PUSH from one direction, but PULL from another. My brain just can't handle that unintuitive of a conceptual model.

The really annoying thing is that there is another set of doors just beyond these. And those doors are well designed--when they're to be pulled, they have a handle, and when they are to be pushed, they have a horizontal bar that one couldn't pull if they tried.