Office in Motion

Future vision to move more in the office.

To stay happy, we need to move! And we move the least during our desk work. Here I see room for improvement. Therefore, I am redesigning an office chair to move while working. Now you can move while sitting on the chair. The motivation is controlling your mouse with the movements. This is done with sensors that I put in the chair and code lines I wrote.

'I am, and not the only one, unhappy with the office workspace.'

With this vision for office chairs, We move more, stay fitter, become healthier, and are happier at the office. Office in Motion = happiness!

To test what kind of design I needed, I made a lot of mechanical prototypes to sit on. This started with wooden ones during the lockdown and evolved into complex metal mechanical chairs to sit on. By adding the sensors to the mechanics, it became complex. The help I found when visiting Bruns and Ahrend brought me to the next level. With engineering tasks and making parts. And the code polishing.

 'Why are my emotions changing when working in an office?!'

What are the opportunities in a normal workday to make up the balance and move more during a working day? Well. We sit too much. When we sit, we barely move, and this causes muscle pain and bad posture in the short term, to even diseases like type 2 diabetes in the long term.

'How can I make our main activity at the office, sitting, more body activated?'

I interviewed a physiotherapist who specialized in office injuries. And she told me the benefits of moving more while you are working and showed me exercises or movements that are ideal for preventing pain. Some you could even do while seated. With all this information, I created a concept:

The chair functions as a computer mouse – operated by body movement.

NOMINATED FOR THE HYBRID FUTURE AWARD
Maker Fair Eindhoven 2021

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Notes:

I focused on the analytical progress with hands-on ergonomic research. And I am talking with experts, an office physio, Bruns and Ahrend. There is only an active seat, so you have more freedom to move, and the user is more motivated to sit healthy. I choose multiple colours on the seat textile because this triggers the user's positive mood and interest.

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