POSTED BY: | April 7, 2020

I bet you’ve been sitting a lot while in quarantine. If not, I’m sure you’ve at least sat down? Got ya.

You’ve even possibly gotten into a situation where you decide to finally pick up that book you’ve been wanting to read. You grab a warm cup of tea, a fuzzy blanket, and you sit with your cat (or even your gerbil, we aren’t biased) on a plushy couch. Did you choose your plushy couch because you simply needed a comfortable place to sit while you read your mystery novel? Our client wants to switch your motivator – you’re reading your book and going to that seat because the seat will improve your cognitive functioning, completely support your body, and provide the ability to focus.

For many, a seat is secondary to their environment, an invisible support. But for our client, and hopefully for their customers, a seat is an innovative piece of technology.

The chair diaries

We selected customers sourced from our client’s database to keep a 5-day virtual diary. They had to document every time they sat somewhere for the week. Yes, this included dining chairs, couches, task chairs, random stools, park benches, balance balls, etc. They were also asked specific question sets to further understand their motivation behind chair purchases, sources of awareness, and key points of consideration.

Putting the chair on a pedestal

In a similar past study among the general market, our participants admitted that they don’t normally pay much attention to where they sit, unless they have back pain or another ailment. They were content with any old hand-me-down chair they could pull up to their desk to complete their work. They adjusted to their chair.

We found that chair selection for our client’s participants involves an intricate decision-making process. Thorough option consideration is the norm and they are often pickier in evaluating their satisfaction with chairs, even if they customized the chair features. Analyzing their daily chair journey, we were able to assign jobs the chairs accomplished for these participants and how each chair category is used for a specific purpose. It turns out, chairs can be the destination in an environment. Chairs have a job and are expected to adjust to the individual, instead of individuals adjusting to the chair.

Does this typical chair journey for the day match yours?

Mornings begin relaxing with coffee in a plush, comfy seat. Work is rarely completed in this type of seat. If anyone decides to be an overachiever in a relaxing chair, they do work that doesn’t require much focus, like replying to emails or making phone calls. A designated task chair is where focused work is completed. Most of the workday is spent in this chair. Breaks are taken throughout the day to get a mental break from the chair and work environment. Pretty self-explanatory. Everyone needs to eat. The workday is finally over and a relaxing, fluffy seat is waiting. No work done here!

Link for task chair image: https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/493876/Realspace-MFTC-200-Mesh-Multifunction-Ergonomic/