Topic: Point and clicking devices

[eri0o]

After long hours working on the computer, and using free time playing games that are mouse first and making point and click games - a huge cemetery of dead prototypes - I ended up having some pain on my wrists. Looking to counter that, I recently got my hands on a vertical mouse for a more comfortable position.



I had some pain in my wrists for a month before getting the mouse - I broke my feet, which reduced my time doing exercises to 0, and then I spent even more time in the computer. The new device is a Logitech MX Vertical mouse, and it's been really comfortable to use this last week. The device is for medium to big sized hands, a small hand will have trouble reaching the buttons.

It works on Windows/Linux/MacOS without problems - except the top button apparently only does interesting things in Windows. The scrollwheel is very simple (doesn't have inertia or any cool feature :/). The back and advance buttons are easy to reach with the thumb. I find it comfortable to hold for long hours and had no problem with drawing softwares that can require more diverse moves of the mouse. Now I am a bit curious about trackballs but there are many different models and very little information on them...

Does anyone here uses a similar device or a trackball or touch pad instead of a traditional mouse to reduce pain in the wrist/arm/hands? Are there other interesting vertical mouses?

[Click'd]

The only trackball I ever used made me bend my pointer and middle fingers upwards in an uncomfortable position. That was over twenty years ago, so I don't know if they changed since then. I blame the centerpiece, a really huge ball in red with black dots on it.

[RyanIsntAlive]

I've always been intruiged by a vertical mouse, I find peripherals to be really hit or miss, and I could imagine the movements to be quite difficult. I like the look of the extra button ontop, do you know what it does on windows?
My current one has back and forwards buttons to change through browser tabs, but I find when I use it for too long, I get incredibly sore wrists, even with my wrist support mouse pad.
Would you reccommend a vertical mouse over a regular one for working on ags games and such?

[eri0o]

I have been really happy using it, but it's fairly large, so if you have medium or large hands it should work fine, but if you have small hands then I wouldn't recommend. It is really good for keeping the precision of a regular mouse - which people say is hard to achieve with a trackball unless you sacrifice speed.

The top button allows some gestures, and what they do you need to configure, say you hold top button and swipe right, this could be like alt+tab, switch workspace, or whatever you want. Logitech has a little (Windows only) Software where you can configure it. There's an open source version people made for Linux of that software. I don't know if there's anything on MacOS - from either logitech or the community.

This one also has back and forward buttons on the thumb side, they are alright.

I had a lot of wrist pains that are gone after using this mouse - I use it for work and everything. In my country I have seven days to return anything I buy online for no cost, so I just bought and experimented with it.

The only thing I dislike in the mouse is the wheel, for the price of the mouse I expected it to have the wheel that other Logitech mouses at it's price point have and it doesn't, it has the wheel of the cheapest Logitech mouses. The other Logitech mouses have inertia...

[Frodo]

From the pictures, it looks incredibly inconvenient for us lefties.   

Can you confirm\deny that, eri0o?  How comfortable is it to use in the left hand? 

[eri0o]

Ah, good point! It's impossible to use this model in the left hand.

Logitech does have left handed version of most their mouses that are focused on a specific hand, and most other vertical mouses are sold in both versions, but this specific model doesn't seem to be available in left handed version - or at least I didn't found it online. I am right handed though.

Ah, also, regarding comfort, I found that using horizontally shorter keyboards, like one without numeric pad and things like that, allow me to position the hand more comfortably. I have been using shorter keyboards for a little time now, but recently I tried a using a longer one (I was given an Apple keyboard with numeric pad) and it was really uncomfortable so that's when I noticed.

[selmiak]

this looks really weird at first but I think I'll try to get my hands on such a device too. Will report back

[fire7side]

I get almost all my wrist pain from the keyboard.  I have it on a separate board which sits on my lap if I am going to use keyboard for very long.  I try not to play games that use keyboard because they are the worst.  A pen and tablet are easier on my wrists and better for art.  Double clicking with them is awkward, though.  I use a little 4x6 tablet, which works fairly well as a mouse, but I still just use a mouse for when I surf or whatever.

[Moriya_17]

That could actually be a great idea, I always end up my working day with serious pains in my wrist or in the middle of my hand, according to my position when I'm using the mouse.
But then, I think I'll still use a standard mouse when gaming.

[Blondbraid]

For me, simply changing the angle on the keyboard with how it lays on my desk has made a big difference to my wrists.

[eri0o]

Yes, stopping and being aware of your space can possibly make you realize that you were just positioned in an incorrect way.

This weekend did a huge clean up on the apartment, this also lifted a lot of my spirit and helped me recover some space, so other thing I will say is to make sure your environment is positively influencing you.