Up until earlier this year, I was using a conventional wireless mouse (Logitech MK185) to save the trackpad on my laptop from further wear and tear. The mouse had been doing the job for me and I didn’t have much to complain about.
But Mr. Zuckerberg thought I needed a change in the mouse department and so, during one of my doom scrolling sessions on Instagram, I came across an ad for a vertical mouse, which the ad claimed was commonly used for better hand ergonomics. I took the bait and went down a YouTube rabbit hole of vertical mice recommendations.
Amidst a ton of brand recommendations, I found myself gravitating towards the ‘ergonomic’ benefits of using vertical mice. An interesting tidbit was how the inventor came about the idea of introducing a new form factor to conventional mice.
Jack Lo made the world’s first mock up of the vertical mouse in 1994. Lo saw an opportunity to revolutionise the way we use mice after experiencing pain and discomfort in his wrist from using a conventional mouse for prolonged hours over several months.
The mock up had the mouse rotated clockwise at an angle of 90 degrees, with the right and left click buttons and the scroll wheel on the side. For left-handed users, this mouse would have the buttons and the scroll wheel rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.
Lo was convinced that his new design would be lapped up by Microsoft, however, it was rejected with a note saying that the mouse had “no proven biomechanic benefits”. This didn’t deter Lo, as he took matters into his own hands (it’s great when the pun writes itself) and made the first commercially available vertical mouse in 2002, the Evoluent Mouse.
The key design element of this vertical mouse was to ensure that the palm doesn’t face down parallel to the desk or workspace and to help the user maintain a handshake posture while operating it.
Dr. Peter Johnson, a Emeritus Professor of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington stated that, “Conventional, flat mice force users to twist their hand, wrist, and forearm down to meet and hold the mouse while working long hours on a computer. Based on our research and the research of others, ergonomic mice that promote a more upright hand and wrist posture (like a handshake) better match our complex anatomy and can put less strain on our muscles.”
Basically, Dr. Johnson recommends using keyboards and mice that reduce pronation.
Pronation and supination are medical terms to describe the orientation of the hands and feet. In the case of hands, when the palm or forearm faces up, it’s supinated, and when the palm or forearm faces down, it’s pronated. And a sideways position of the palm or forearm is considered to be neutral.
Excessive pronation of the hands usually results in carpal tunnel syndrome.
So, if we were to briefly look at the anatomy of our hands, the carpal tunnel is a passageway in our wrists, which houses the median nerve and the flexor tendons.
The median nerve originates as a group of nerve roots in the neck and is one of the main nerves in the hand. The median nerve stretches across the arm, the forearm and passes through the carpal tunnel and goes right into the hand. It also plays a key role in providing feeling in our fingers and thumb.
The flexor tendons, a total of nine tendons, help bend the fingers and thumb and travel through the carpal tunnel.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by increased pressure on the median nerve as it travels through the carpal tunnel. This pressure on the median nerve is usually caused by the swelling of the tissues surrounding the flexor tendons. This swelling is mostly caused by excessive pronation of the hand and wrist over a prolonged period of time. It mainly results in pain, numbness, tingling in the hand and arm and causes weakness in the muscles of the hand.
The ergonomic design of the vertical mouse does indeed help those who suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and other related issues of the hand and arm.
I have been enjoying this new form of using a mouse lately.
Although I don’t suffer from any pain or discomfort in my wrist from having used a normal mouse for the entirety of my life so far, learning about how something as perceivably harmless as using a mouse for prolonged periods of time may cause carpal tunnel syndrome in the future did facilitate the conversion.
The resting position of my hand on the vertical mouse feels more natural than it did with the normal mouse. It was also easy getting used to the vertical orientation of the left and right click buttons. The particular model I have is a little heavier than my normal mouse, but it isn’t something that has dampened my experience. I’m sure you could find light weight variants online.
Overall, I’m happy with the switch and would like to use this article as a plea for you to make the switch as well. You’ll be dealt a good hand (this one wrote itself too) if you do!