Makkonen and colleagues studied how standing desks influenced the at-work experiences of employees at a software company. They determined that, among the employees of the Finnish software company where they collected data, “the usage of standing instead of sitting workstations results in only modest promotions of physical activity, does not have an effect on mental alertness…decreases musculoskeletal strain in the neck and shoulders, although increasing it in the legs and feet.” Using standing desks didn’t significantly affect employees’ satisfaction with their workstations.
Markus Makkonen, Minna Silvennoinen, Tuula Nousiainen, Arto Pesola, and Mikko Vesisenaho. 2017. “To Sit or to Stand, That is the Question: Examining the Effects of Work Posture Change on the Well-Being at Work of Software Professionals.” International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, vol. 17, no. 4, no pagination.
Sally Augustin, PhD,a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.