Comfotable and Functional Mouse for Carpal

[Mukade]

Actualy I had mild carpal tunnel until I stopped using Logitech mice.

They may look ergonomic with their very sculpted shape, but it doesn't actually promote a relaxed hand position (at least for me). The width of the mouse between the grooves for the thumb and 3rd finger is too small, and that encourages gripping the mouse. Also they don't really arch up under the palm, instead the slow curve falls under the fingers, meaning you have to grip slightly front to back too.

Now I'm using a Razer mouse intended for FPS games, and I can see a lot of design features that you'd expect from people who use a mouse intensely for hours on end, and demand much more from a mouse.

The shape quite literally allows me to flop my hand on top of it completely relaxed, and the arch at the rear fits right into the depression of my palm, behind the base of the fingers, while the width at the front of the mouse, being greater than that of the Logitechs I have, means I don't have to squeeze between the rather unnatural combination of thumb and 3rd finger. The whole thing is covered in non-slip rubber, and combined with the lightness it needs no gripping at all to move. The only time you need to put even the slightest pressure on your fingers, is when you're clicking buttons.

Add to this the main feature of FPS mice, their sensitivity. In FPS games precision aiming is absolutely vital to winning, and while many would expect a lower sensitivity to make this easier, the reverse is actually true. With a low sensitivity, you have to move the mouse a lot further, and you're doing the aiming with your elbow and wrist, moving the mouse around a lot, which can get tiring. Also the precision isn't great, as you're not wired to be quite as accurate in those large movements, as you are moving just your fingers. That's why the sensitivity is so high on gaming mice. When you move the mouse using small finger movements, you have a lot more control of where you aim, allowing flawless headshots in factions of a second.

In WoW my mouse lets me turn a full 360 degrees in just over 2" of sideways movement, so most of the time it's hardly moving at all, and I hardly ever have to pick it up to be able to turn far enough, especially when it's on one of the huge low friction Razer mouse mats.

The mouse mat is made to match the feet on the bottom of the mouse, to minimise friction as much as possible, and is big enough that the mouse can sit on one edge, while my elbow is just off the other edge.

The only problem with this kind of mouse is getting used to the change in sensitivity, it feels wierd at first, and takes a couple of weeks of use to get the hang of controlling something that is so light and twitchy, but once you've got past it moving your mouse around is a lot less strain. The sensitivity also comes in handy when you've got a massive desktop space to cover, from having several high resolution monitors. 6" to cross 3840 pixels for me (and it's funny watching other people try and control your mouse when they're used to having to pick one up repeatedly to cross the whole desktop).