ERGONOMICS OF MAGAZINE PRODUCTION

ERGONOMICS:

The production of magazines means that the people in production of both digital and print will need to take precautions to not compromise their physical health. This includes spines, legs, ankles, arms, hands, wrists and necks. If any of these are damaged they can cause major health concerns later in life, including chronic back pain or arthritis.

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WORKING AT A COMPUTER:

SPINE / BACK / JOINTS:

With either standing or sitting down, it is crucial that the back remains somewhat straight, perpendicular to the ground. For the older generations, when the back is not straight for a few minutes a discomfort can be felt which will only increase if this malpractice is continued. For example, backpain is the source of over 264,000,000 lost work days in one single year, it is said

that 80% of the population will experience back pain in their life too - from adolescence to elderly. Considering that most magazine production work is done online on a computer or a general screen, this will affect most of the industry and must be at the forefront of their mind. Not only will this affect them now, but it will at a higher extent in their later life if / when they develop arthiritis, this is able to develop in joints and is not something which can simple just go away. Arthiritis is an irreversible process which causes many problems in everyday life, it can be a struggle to walk to the shops or even keep on a quick jog , or if possible, a run. Despite being irreversible, the process can be manageable with medication, although if the diagnosis is really tragic the medicine doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

EYESIGHT:

Eyes will always naturally diminish over a lifetime, however, prolonged screen time across a substantial time period can be a catalyst to the situation. A great prevention to help rest the eyes of a short term solution is to look away from the screen and have regular breaks, this will keep them from feeling heavy and becoming dry. Another big help is sitting at a set distance from the screen, a distance recommended by medicle professsionals between fifty and sixty centimetres, a good visual is about the length of two thirty centimetre rulers.

In a momentary situation, the blue light of a screen will cause strain on the eyes, give headaches / migraines, neck tension and dry eyes, but this can be prevented by switching on the night light. The night light gives off a calmer, orange gleam which isn't as intense on the eyes,

especially during the nighttime: it is actually suggested that you use this 'night light' when in darkness as it is made to harmonise with the dim surroundings. You can often adjust the warmness of the light too, shown below on an Apple Mac, this helps so that the colour is manageable since it is often too orange.

Another option for when working late hours, early mornings, or just generally, you can use the 'dark mode' option, this works to make most white backgrounds black. After using this feature for a prolonged time, after switching back to 'day mode' you can easily notice the strain which is put on your eyes so regularly, much unnecessarily. A great example for this would be search engines, there is so much empty space on the background, either white or black. Shown below:

This feature is compactable on various platforms, devices and sites nowadays, when looking in settings. Many brands need an update for the feature, for example, Apple featured their dark mode on iOS 13, this is now common and sold as a default in their settings with every phone. Android contradicted this, and introduced the feature with the release of their phone Android 10, this can only be found on phones after this.