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For those who sit at a computer all day, the repetitious typing causes pain that can be felt on a daily basis. This pain is referred to as musculo-skeletal Disorders (MSD), which affect muscles, tendons and nerves. Most people who are at a computer tend to stay in the same spot every day. Staying in one position for hours upon hours can fatigue muscles and have damaging long-term effects, and it is the leading cause of arthritis and carpel tunnel.

With mobility usage on the rise, most users are turning to the mobile Web rather than their desktop. This has added yet another ergonomic issue to the ones that users traditionally face. Handheld devices have also been found to contribute to muscle fatigue, yet a new project from Wingo, a manufacture of e-reader cases, could help users avoid this fate.

Image via Cult of Mac

The Wingo case is one of the newest ergonomic creations for the e-reader, providing protection for a user’ Kindle while also focusing on comfort levels. The case has two grips, or “wings”, as the company refers to them, that come out of each side so that the Kindle can rest in a user’s hand. The project aims to:

• Reduce grip tension
• Fill the natural contour of fingers
• Place hand and forearm in a more natural position

According to Anthony D. Andrea, Ph.D, CPE, the “wings” hold onto a user’s hand, thus removing the need to grasp the device and releasing the weight from the finger tips.

“Our goal was to develop the most comfortable case in the world, by focusing our design on suggestions from the harshest critics, and by integrating functional solutions that solve real problems,” says the Wingo team. “This is a highly advanced design, internally and externally, built by an all-star team of professionals, using the highest quality, lightweight materials, resulting in a solution that simply makes e-reading more comfortable.”

As mobile devices continue to make headway in the industry it is important that ergonomics continue to play a key role in their development.  These devices play a key role in the lives of people of all kinds, especially the workforce, and the recent BYOD trend will only expand that role. 

Many educational systems have even begun to adopt tablets into the learning environment, and with projects like Wingo users are able to see just how important it their health is to manufactures and developers alike.