When Ergonomics Realized in the Office Chair Design?

Just like our shoes that we wear during most of the day, office chairs are where we spend much of our time. Not fun as shoes, office chairs put more emphasis on status and taste and affect the way our body feels. We may spend more time in picking out a pair of comfortable and nice shoes, but we usually accept the chair which is just there and choose to sit on it. We choose a pair of shoes that fit our feet, yet ignore to select an office chair that fits us.

Over the years, chair designers gradually make change to the office chairs and make it perfect. Then why is there still no perfect chair till now? Absolutely, we still haven't yet found the perfect office chair. For any better chair over the older ones, more and more features of the chairs have been improved. Read on.

Chair Design Concept of Body Conscious Seating

Thousands of years ago, hardly was there any association of chair with body. Around 3000 B.C, there were some changes in the design of chair that obviously considered comfort as one of the feature of chairs, or exactly, chairs to be designed to allow workers efficient performance. The three legged stool with a concave seat and slight tilt angle came as a hint that chairs are designed to aid the body.

Chairs with Movement of Body Deemed Immoral

Then chairs had a lot of variations, functional or nice. It was around 1860 chairs with cast iron and velvet came out, with emphasize movement or posture. Such chairs can swivel or tilt. But they were deemed immoral,

More Smart Designs of Chair Yet None Popular

Chairs that can swivel or tilt just got a lot of skeptical. The late 19th century was an exceptionally innovative time when chairs came in more and more smart designs. The smart design was mainly credited to engineers and doctors who create chairs based on studies of bodily movement and the chairs with smart design, especially with features such as adjustable backrests, seat height, seat-tilt tension and other features that can be seen from ergonomic chairs just made activities like surgery, dentistry or hairdressing easier. At that time, preference for rocking chair just dwarfed the chairs with such smart designs.

The beginning of 20th century witnessed an emergence of various aesthetically influential office chairs, yet they were chairs without body-conscious design. Designers seemed less interested in making the chair fit the human body than the surrounding decoration.

Chairs for comfort or laziness?

In the 1920s, the idea was popular among designers that those chairs designed for comfortable seating was intended for laziness and it was common for workers to sit on backless benches. In response to declining productivity and illness, especially among women, a swiveling chair with a curved backrest that could be adjusted to suit the height came out. I was said to solve problems caused by slouching in the chairs.

Chairs Tend to Be Cool in 1950s and 1960s

Who popularized the term of ergonomics? It is clear that during the second World War and about 100 years later, this term occurred and chair researchers did more research about the workplace and our bodies, yet ergonomics was almost strange to designers or consumer. Aesthetics suppressed developments in body-conscious design.

Early 1970s Witnessed the Popularity of Ergonomics in Chair Design

Technology is useless unless any influential person embraces it and still makes it look decent. It was in early 1970s that chair designers started to have any interest in ergonomic principles. At that time, ergonomics notion was still not mature and even oversimplified.

Ergon Chair Introduced Ergonomics to a Broader Audience

Modern manufacturer Herman Miller released its Ergon Chair n 1976, and the chair just brought the notion of ergonomic seating to a greater audience. Though still without any moving parts, the chairs offered critical posture support and that made it a really big deal.

After 1970s, ergonomics chairs got more and more improved in aspect of style. Chairs could adapt to the human movements and offer comfort and support in a less elegant way. Later, various styles of ergonomic chairs appeared, such as the kneeling chair.

In 1980s, ergonomics got all the rage. More and more ergonomic chairs went into office areas and this had much to do with the computer related injury in the era when computers became an office staple. The Aeron Chair is probably the only ergonomic office chair that people outside the chair world know by name. The ergonomic chair offered lumbar support, incorporating a molded pad into the curvature of the backrest. This just inspired designers to make a chair fit an individual just as shoes do.

Now, modern office chairs got more and more improved and tend to benefit both mind and body. Modern office chair can swivel around and that we can sit on it in all directions. The emergence of many impressive chairs just made the word ergonomic utterly meaningless. There is no standard way to define whether a chair is ergonomic or not, but a lot of questions like “What is comfort?” or “What should an office chair accomplish?”occur. The stand up desks just create sit-stand work stations. A lot wonder whether we choose to sit or stand.