Well, Xerox came up with the GUI. And they let a little company called Apple take a look at it. Apple then asked another little company called Microsoft to write some software for the new Apple GUI. The rest is computing history. There are some great benefits to the GUI, and it allowed for unparalleled productivity enhancements and opened up computing to the masses, two very ergonomic things to do.
However, with the GUI came a need for a new way to interface. You can save a lot of time and require less skill to operate a computer where you can just point to what you want to do instead of having to remember a string of text commands and formatting guidelines. So they came up with the mouse to be the primary interface instead of the keyboard.
The theory was simple. You move the mouse around your desktop and the cursor on the screen moves correspondingly. In fact they started calling that area of the GUI the desktop as well. So the GUI was an ergonomic breakthrough. And the mouse was as well. Unfortunately, the consequences of relying on such an interface can be ergonomically bad. Repetitive stress injuries such as Mouse Arm, tendonitis or bursitis can be a direct result of using a mouse. Additionally, so much work can be done on a computer that most people spend the majority of the day in front of one which can lead to eye strain, back strain, neck strain, etc.
So if the computer mouse can cause so many problems, why do we use it?
There are other GUI input devices that can take the place of the computer mouse. And some may be a better personal ergonomic fit for you. But the computer mouse stays the standard for two reasons: it works well; and it was the standard.
Cognitive ergonomic research has showed us some interesting things in how people solve problems. We’d like to think that when faced with a problem we look at it from different angles, come up with different solutions, weigh the pros and cons of all of those, and then choose the best solution and move forward. Unfortunately we don’t.
What happens more often is that we come up with a reasonable solution that we have some amount of confidence in and we proceed to make it work. So the mouse was the first thing that hit the market and it works well so it stays. A lot of ergonomic research and design modifications to address the issues with long term mouse use have also helped it stay the leader of the pack since none of the other input devices improve the ergonomics that drastically.
So basically we need a computer mouse because we have a computer, it does a decent job as an interface, but there are alternatives if you don't like it.
