{"id":585,"date":"2021-06-22T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/?p=585"},"modified":"2023-03-16T15:24:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T15:24:08","slug":"designs-impact-on-health-the-push-to-click-or-tactile-integral-trackpad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/designs-impact-on-health-the-push-to-click-or-tactile-integral-trackpad\/","title":{"rendered":"Design\u2019s impact on health: The push to click (or tactile) integral trackpad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reprint of my blog post on Medium.com<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first of my series on design and health, I\u2019m writing about my personal un-favorite: the push to click integral trackpad<\/em> found on most laptops today. Their development for aesthetic sleekness has come at the expense of the user\u2019s tendon, joint, and muscle health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, if you\u2019re not familiar with the term push to click trackpad<\/em>, it\u2019s the rectangular area of the laptop below the keyboard where you can move the cursor on the screen. In order to click, you have to push down on the trackpad. Prior to the push to click<\/em> era, these pads usually had buttons either above them, below them, or both, more or less mimicking the traditional mouse. I still use this type of trackpad \u2014 in fact, I seek out laptops mostly based on this single point. To use this type of trackpad, I rest my hand on the laptop so my wrist lies flat, then position my index finger to just move a small amount on the trackpad while my middle finger does the clicking. One finger moves while the other presses down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Image
My own trackpad, with shiny wear spots where I keep my fingers. As you can see, I don\u2019t have to move my fingers around much or use much force to use the traditional type of trackpad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Push to click trackpads<\/em>, on the other hand, require much more force on a single finger, and make some programs where you have to click and drag frequently\u2014 such as Photoshop \u2014 a literal pain to use. Because of my carpal tunnel, rheumatoid arthritis, and neuropathy, having to hold down the trackpad with a single finger while moving it causes pain that increases the more I use the trackpad. I\u2019m far from the only one with this problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simple search for \u201ctrackpad click pain\u201d brings up multiple stories of users with problems simply because \u201cthe trackpad is too hard to click for me, to the point that it can get painful<\/a>,\u201d and confused users asking why their trackpads are causing them hand and wrist pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Inspire members have given up on trackpads and touchpads entirely because of this. There are a myriad of recommendations on Inspire for alternative methods of interacting with computers. Such hacking includes using a touchpad to move the cursor and footpedals for clicking. Voice control is very popular with those who simply can\u2019t take the pain caused by modern trackpads: \u201cIt helps a lot for those of us who have very painful and\/or limited use of the upper extremities.\u201d These ideas are wonderful, but I wonder: why are these trackpads designed in a way that is so miserable to use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, the answer seems to be \u201cvisual design elegance.\u201d The 1997 paper,\u201cTactile Touchpad,<\/a>\u201d describes how an early push to click <\/em>trackpad was designed to mimic how a mouse worked, while maintaining a sleekness of design. The authors theorized that push to click<\/em> would work better than buttons with a touchpad because you clicked buttons on a touchpad with either your thumb or index finger. They did not appear to consider the alternative that many of us with hand mobility issues have settled on: the use of the index\/middle finger combination. This paper seems to have influenced major laptop manufacturers who wanted to make their products look more polished, high end, luxury, and less \u201cgeeky.\u201d Trackpad buttons were among the first things to go in the quest for slimming things down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I admit, push to click<\/em> trackpads do make laptops look more like something from Tiffany than something from Radio Shack. But I wonder, were the new trackpads extensively user tested? Were there any ergonomic studies done on it or its successors? Unfortunately, I don\u2019t know. I have sent inquiries to major laptop manufacturers, but haven\u2019t received a response as of this writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of how they were initially conceived and tested, in 2021 we know the importance of ergonomics on health. Many manufacturers of independent (meaning not integrated into the laptop) trackpads\/touchpads are now making models that have buttons, are rounded to reduce wrist stress, and that provide other ergonomic choices. Hopefully some of these ergonomic ideas will make it into the next generation of laptops and their trackpads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have a design that has made your health better or worse? Let me know<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprint of my blog post on Medium.com In the first of my series on design and health, I\u2019m writing about my personal un-favorite: the push to click integral trackpad found on most laptops today. Their development for aesthetic sleekness has come at the expense of the user\u2019s tendon, joint, and muscle health. Now, if you\u2019re… Read More »Design\u2019s impact on health: The push to click (or tactile) integral trackpad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[378,174],"tags":[376,377,375],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tashajaeger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}