Desk Ergonomics 5-Minute Checkup
☆A 1 cm screen-height error over an 8-hour day adds 10–15% more muscle fatigue (Washington State L&I 4,000-person study, cited via Office Gallery). Tick what's correct at your desk and get a 0–100 score plus a $50 fix-it list in priority order.
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Tick everything that is correct right now at your desk
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Sit upright, close one eye: is the screen center above or below your horizontal gaze? Each centimeter off adds ~10–15% more muscle fatigue over an 8-hour day.
Your desk score
Health score0/100
Tick the five points above to score your desk.
$50 fix-it kit — priority order for your gaps
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Why this matters
The desk you sit at 45 hours a week is probably the one at the office — and Office Gallery, citing Logitech and a Washington State L&I study of about 4,000 workers alongside Johns Hopkins and University of Utah material, is blunt about the math: a 1 cm height deviation over an 8-hour day adds roughly 10–15% more muscle fatigue in the neck and shoulders. The companion finding, from SitApp, ZENT Care, Johns Hopkins and keyriser, is that tilting your head forward just 15° adds about 17 pounds of cervical load. Both problems are almost always fixed for under $50. The reason this matters more in 2026 is hybrid work: you now have two desks — a tuned home setup and whatever the office gave you — and the office one is where the neck and wrist complaints actually start.
How it works
Sit normally at your desk and tick each of the five points that is genuinely correct today: screen top at or below eye level, elbows at 90°, lumbar supported, feet flat, laptop on a riser with an external keyboard. Your score is the share of points correct, on a 0–100 ring. Below it, the tool builds a fix-it list in community-tested priority order — footrest, then keyboard/laptop riser, then monitor arm, then wrist rest — including only the fixes matching your actual gaps. The Advanced 1 cm self-test lets you measure the vertical gap between your eye line and screen center, converting that study number into your own reading.
What the results mean
A score above 80 means your desk posture basics are fine — the remaining gains come from posture breaks, not equipment. A score under 60 means at least two structural gaps; fix them in the listed order because each step chains into the next (raise the laptop before you worry about the wrist rest). The medical basis on each row is a consensus ergonomic statement, not a diagnosis — for persistent pain, see a physical therapist. For the chair side of the equation, run the Ergonomic Chair Finder; for the office desk you can't modify, the riser and footrest are deliberately carry-able between sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a 1 cm screen height error matter?
A Washington State L&I study of about 4,000 workers — cited via Office Gallery alongside Logitech, Johns Hopkins and University of Utah material — found a 1 cm vertical deviation over an 8-hour day adds roughly 10–15% more neck/shoulder muscle fatigue. The 1 cm self-test in the Advanced panel measures your own gap.
Why is typing directly on a laptop bad?
It pairs two stresses: bent wrists on a shallow keyboard, and a downward head tilt of about 15° that carries roughly 17 lb of added cervical load (Johns Hopkins / SitApp / ZENT Care / keyriser material). A ~$15 folding riser plus an external keyboard and mouse fixes both at once.
What cheap fixes should I buy first?
Community-tested priority: footrest (~$15), keyboard/laptop riser (~$15–25), monitor arm (~$25–50), wrist rest. This tool lists only the fixes matching your actual gaps, so you spend under $50 instead of buying the whole kit.