tankman1989
Active Member
- Reaction score
- 5
I was just reading a Windows 7 guide which outlines shortcuts for various actions. While reading this magazine I started to get the idea that many of us in the IT world may have lost focus on what our true goal or creation of IT is/was for. This is to increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace as well as making some tasks simpler (which in itself increases the previously mentioned goals).
I had an epiphany while reading an article about "ditching a wheel-less mouse". I to fully agree that with today's GUI's a wheel is crucial but I also feel that another feature is critical as well and that is the "forward/backward" button which is extremely useful in browsers and in Windows Explorer and many other programs. Both of these features save a lot of time by reducing the amount of mouse/trackball movement. I just recently ditched my fully functional mouse for a trackball (logitech) that just recently included a F/B button, and I couldn't be happier with it!
When I worked doing roll-outs for Dell I was shocked at the quality of the input devices they provided with the systems. They were BASELINE for a 3rd world country, lol, meaning they were cheap, flimsy and very non ergonomic.
I would think that anyone who spends more than a couple hours on the computer a day should be allowed to pick out their own custom input devices in accordance to their own needs. For the little that this should cost I would suspect that the return on this small investment would be multifold in addition to keeping your employee happier.
Input devices were my main point when I started to write this but I also think things such as monitors should be carefully evaluated for each individual. I know I can get about 50% more work completed with my current 2 monitor setup vs my single monitor. Along with this is having the user understand how to customize their display settings for font size and icon size. I can't count the number of times I have been at a users desk watching them search for the MS Word icon (for maybe 30 seconds!!) that has been in the same place for 5 years, lol.
Finally while this may not be IT related it is productivity related so I will still bring it up. Chairs. a few years back some new type of office chair came out that cost about $600 and it had a nylon mesh back and something like 4-9 points of adjustment. I had one for about 3 months and I LOVED IT! It was worth every penny and I would suggest employers bucking up and getting those, at least for people with back problems (as I do), the reduction of pain probably increased my work rate by 25-35%. I noticed all the upper management had these chairs at the Pharma companies I did roll-outs at and they all commented how much they loved them. Does anyone know they chair I'm talking about? (I found it... Aeron Chair).
Finally (final one) I think teaching keyboard shortcuts is extremely important. Cutting down on the mouse to keyboard movements is crucial in increasing performance. My local doctors office recently went to computerized med records and the doc's see an average of 5-7 less patients a day due to the software taking forever to get through. I watch them and it is click - input - click - input -click - input - click - input -click - input - click - input, etc. Each time the hand moves back and forth to the mouse to the keyboard. I look at the program and it is set up for tabbing and Alt + ___ but none of the doctors or nurses use this. I'd love to be able to help them out but don't know how to approach them about this. This is a HUGE company too with about 1,000 doctors (I may be off here...?) on staff throughout the county and the hospital. Any suggestions on how to bring this up?
I had an epiphany while reading an article about "ditching a wheel-less mouse". I to fully agree that with today's GUI's a wheel is crucial but I also feel that another feature is critical as well and that is the "forward/backward" button which is extremely useful in browsers and in Windows Explorer and many other programs. Both of these features save a lot of time by reducing the amount of mouse/trackball movement. I just recently ditched my fully functional mouse for a trackball (logitech) that just recently included a F/B button, and I couldn't be happier with it!
When I worked doing roll-outs for Dell I was shocked at the quality of the input devices they provided with the systems. They were BASELINE for a 3rd world country, lol, meaning they were cheap, flimsy and very non ergonomic.
I would think that anyone who spends more than a couple hours on the computer a day should be allowed to pick out their own custom input devices in accordance to their own needs. For the little that this should cost I would suspect that the return on this small investment would be multifold in addition to keeping your employee happier.
Input devices were my main point when I started to write this but I also think things such as monitors should be carefully evaluated for each individual. I know I can get about 50% more work completed with my current 2 monitor setup vs my single monitor. Along with this is having the user understand how to customize their display settings for font size and icon size. I can't count the number of times I have been at a users desk watching them search for the MS Word icon (for maybe 30 seconds!!) that has been in the same place for 5 years, lol.
Finally while this may not be IT related it is productivity related so I will still bring it up. Chairs. a few years back some new type of office chair came out that cost about $600 and it had a nylon mesh back and something like 4-9 points of adjustment. I had one for about 3 months and I LOVED IT! It was worth every penny and I would suggest employers bucking up and getting those, at least for people with back problems (as I do), the reduction of pain probably increased my work rate by 25-35%. I noticed all the upper management had these chairs at the Pharma companies I did roll-outs at and they all commented how much they loved them. Does anyone know they chair I'm talking about? (I found it... Aeron Chair).
Finally (final one) I think teaching keyboard shortcuts is extremely important. Cutting down on the mouse to keyboard movements is crucial in increasing performance. My local doctors office recently went to computerized med records and the doc's see an average of 5-7 less patients a day due to the software taking forever to get through. I watch them and it is click - input - click - input -click - input - click - input -click - input - click - input, etc. Each time the hand moves back and forth to the mouse to the keyboard. I look at the program and it is set up for tabbing and Alt + ___ but none of the doctors or nurses use this. I'd love to be able to help them out but don't know how to approach them about this. This is a HUGE company too with about 1,000 doctors (I may be off here...?) on staff throughout the county and the hospital. Any suggestions on how to bring this up?
