Ergonomic history of furniture

Common examples of ergonomic furniture are chairs sofas and office furniture

Ergonomics is the study of designing objects to be better adapted to the shape of the human body and/or to correct the user's posture. Common examples include chairs designed to prevent the user from sitting in positions that may have a detrimental effect on the spine, and the ergonomic desk which offers an adjustable keyboard tray, a main desktop of variable height and other elements which can be changed by the user.

Wojciech Jastrzębowski used the word ergonomics for the first time in 1857.

ergonomic office chairs

Ergonomics also helps with the design of alternative computer input devices for people who want to avoid repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome. A normal computer keyboard tends to force users to keep their hands together and hunch their shoulders. To prevent injury, or to give relief to people who already have symptoms, special split keyboards, curved keyboards, and other alternative input devices exist.

Ergonomics is much larger than looking at the physiological and anatomical aspects of the human being. The psychology of humans is also a key element within the ergonomics discipline. This psychological portion of ergonomics is usually referred to as Human factors or Human factors engineering in the U.S., and ergonomics is the term used in Europe. Understanding design in terms of cognitive workload, human error, the way humans perceive their surroundings and, very importantly, the tasks that they undertake are all analyzed by ergonomists.

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