Visual ergonomics for changing work environments in the COVID-19 pandemic

1Introduction

The entire world was on the verge of becoming digital and the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has made that even more relevant in a short span of time [1]. During the pandemic, digital work for each individual has grown in the work from home (WFH) setups. Many offices offer hybrid work environments that involve a new set of challenges from usability and visual ergonomics perspectives. A glaring side effect of this new work culture is eye strain due to high amount of screen-based work. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) is recognized by the American Optometric Association as a group of vision and eye problems due to excessive computer use [2]. It is also found that when the visual demand is higher than a person’s visual ability, CVS and digital eye strain (DES) occur [3].

It is seen that the population whose work is computer dependent reports more vision problems. The occurrence of CVS ranges from 64% to 90% for computer users. Globally around 60 million people are affected by CVS [4]. It has been reported that visual symptoms are prevalent in 75% to 90% of computer workers in India [5].

This study is an attempt to further previous research [6], which investigated the relationship between the increase of digital work in the pandemic and related digital eye strain. The study shows other significant changes in the digital work environments through parameters of number of hours spent on digital work, onset of hybrid work culture and its effect on eye health. The aim of the study is to examine CVS and visual ergonomics in remote and hybrid settings.

2Materials and methods

An online questionnaire was designed and administered (Appendix) in September 2021. The survey consisted of the computer-vision symptom scale (CVSS17) questionnaire [7] modified to additionally include Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF)-related questions. A random sampling method was used for collecting the data representative of working professionals in the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 66 working professionals participated in the survey voluntarily via Google Forms. The inclusion criteria for the surveyed population were professionals working digitally during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to do so until the survey was conducted. The Google Forms questionnaire was circulated through social media in various professional circles and responses were collected; no database of professionals was used to conduct the survey. Only the forms that were filled in completely were included for further analysis. Demographic measures only included the respondents’ gender and age.

The questionnaire includes three sections: the first section includes eye health overview-related questions, the second section consists of eye-related symptoms faced during 4 weeks prior to taking the survey using the CVSS 17 tool and the third section included work-related aspects of visual ergonomics/design, computer activities and the surrounding environment.

3Results

A total of 66 professionals working during the COVID-19 pandemic responded to our survey circulated online in September 2021. The mean age of the respondents was 37 years (SD = 5 years); among them 44 (66.5%) respondents were male and 22 (33.5%) were female.

Forty-four participants were working from home out of which 17 (38%) were female and 27 (61%) were male. Fourteen respondents indicated working in hybrid mode and eight indicated working from the office. The working from the office population was merged with the population in hybrid mode, as they were also working from home after office hours. Thus, a total of 22 respondents were considered to be working in hybrid mode. Among the 22 respondents working in hybrid mode 5 (23%) were females and 17 (77%) were males.

3.1Change in working hours

The study shows that screen time (hours spent in front of the screen) is higher in WFH situations than in hybrid mode of work. It was also found that 43% of the population working from home spent more than 9 hours in front of the screens compared with the 4% of population working in hybrid mode (Table 1).

Table 1

Hours spent in front of the screen per day in work from home and hybrid mode of work

	Work from home	Hybrid work
Less than 1 hour	1 (2%)	3 (13%)
1 to 5 hours	5 (11%)	10 (45%)
6 to 9 hours	19 (43%)	8 (36%)
More than 9 hours	19 (43%)	1 (4%)

Overall, 56% of the participants prefer to take a break after 60 min of working. Also, only 10.5% of the participants take a break after 20 minutes, which is the recommended standard [8] (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Frequency of breaks while working on a computer (n = 66).

3.4Visual ergonomics

An important aspect of visual ergonomics studied was the relative position of the top of the computer screen and eye level. In the population studied, 37% had the screen below the eye level, 21% above the eye level and 40% at the eye level (Fig. 2). Another crucial factor studied was the font size used by the working population while working on the screens. 52% use 9–11 font size, 33% use 12–15 font size, 12% use 6–8 font size and 3% use larger than 15 points font size (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2

Relation between top of the computer screen to eye level.

Fig. 3

Use of font size (percentage).

4Discussion

A combination of eye and visual issues occur with increased visual demands that show presence of CVS. The working population globally had to shift to working on computers from their homes with minimally optimal conditions for work. They also experienced 1.5 hours more working hours in the working from home scenario during the pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic working from office scenario [9]. This has put the working professionals in a high-risk zone for CVS [3]. A sizable population of working professionals studied during the pandemic have reported eye strain, which acts as an indicator for onset of further problems like blurry vision or similar visual difficulties [6]. The results of this study suggest that the individuals reporting eye strain also reported the blurring of screen after continuous screen use.

Research into device usage reveals that laptops are most prominently used in home- office environments, followed by desktop and tablets. Mobile phones have been predominantly used for work as well [10]. Equivalent results have been found in our study where the use of mobile phones for work is seen to be 64% among the working professionals surveyed.

As stated by Reddy et al., working professionals with their computer screens set below the eye level had significantly lower CVS symptoms than those that viewed the screen at or above the eye level [11]. In the current study 61% of the respondents used a screen at or above the eye level. Also, the font size used by 52% of the respondents was between the 9–11 point which is much lower than the recommended 14 point for maintaining good visual ergonomic conditions [12]. In view of the above observations, there is an obvious need to create more awareness about visual ergonomics practices.

The current study results reveal that hours spent in front of the screen for work are higher in WFH situations than in hybrid mode of work. Comparable results of increased work hours in WFH situation were also noted by Awada et al. [9].

Burning sensation of the eyes, eye pain, dryness of the eyes, increased light sensitivity were the most common symptoms due to prolonged use of digital devices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similar reporting was done by Almarzouki et al. [5].

As a consequence of the pandemic, WFH and hybrid work cultures have taken root and have resulted in poor working environments. This can affect the eye health of the professionals working on screens and affect their productivity at work [13]. Unclean computer screens, defective or bad-quality computer screens and higher viewing angle are commonly found issues in working conditions which can result in blurred and unclear images [14]. The absence of ideal ergonomic conditions for work at home offices is due to a lack of awareness as the users are not professionals that understand the spatial factors involved in applied visual ergonomics to the ideal workspace. As most working professionals are now moving to a hybrid work culture, understanding visual ergonomics with ease and its implementation will be essential for the eye to screen visual interaction.

5Conclusion

A definite onset of CVS is reconfirmed by this study. The number of hours spent in front of a screen is higher in the population working from home than those in hybrid work culture. Structured research is needed to better understand the human computer interaction challenges faced in the eye to screen relationship, especially in the new working environments. Working towards the prevention of CVS through easy to implement strategies is needed. User friendly strategies of applied visual ergonomics in the eye to screen space, raising awareness about visual ergonomics in computer users and good eye care can prevent rampant onset of CVS in the working population.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University and/or national research committee with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.