The Diffrient World Chair
World chair
Workplace productivity & the ergonomic mix
Human factors and ergonomics (HF&E) is the practice of designing products, systems or processes to take proper account of the interaction between them and the people that use them. A multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, biomechanics, industrial design and physiology, in essence it is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body and its cognitive abilities.
Still many people believe that ergonomics is all about the small details: How high your desk should be; the correct angle for your wrist in relation to your keyboard; essentially the way your body should line up with various pieces of equipment that are used in every workplace around the world. Or that it’s solely linked to health and safety, and largely about injury prevention. It’s far more complex than that however, and can in fact be a great contributor to the overall productivity of an individual, and the profitability of an organisation.
Professor Alan Hedge is Director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Program at Cornell University. Recently in Australia for a series of events hosted by Schiavello and Humanscale, Professor Hedge says good ergonomics most definitely impact the bottom line. He often remarks, “If you could change the productivity of people in a building by just 1%, that would be the equivalent of all the energy costs over the lifetime of that building”.
Therein lies the challenge for many organisations. With a myriad of ergonomic products in the market, decision-makers need to choose wisely when fitting spaces with the full ergonomic kit. If a product is complex, requiring too many adjustments, the user won’t properly interact with it, and the company may not reap its potential benefits. That’s an investment lost. The key, according to Peter Stacey, country manager of Australia and New Zealand for Humanscale, is usability, intuitiveness and smart functionality.
A focus on task chairs
Peter Stacey talks frequently and passionately about task chairs as a critical component of the ergonomic set that people rarely adjust.
“Take task chairs as a case in point. There can be six or seven levers on a typical ergonomic task chair but it requires a science degree to know how to use it. All of these products are very good and highly adjustable, but the reality is that people just don’t adjust them. All they usually do is adjust the height”, says Stacey.
If companies really want to increase the utilisation of ergonomic products, they need to select those that are the most intuitive and easy to adjust, those delivering the greatest health and productivity benefits to the user and the organisation.
Task chairs are one product category that Peter Stacey is particularly adamant about getting right because their correct adjustment is vital to facilitating a neutral posture for the user. Excitement about Humanscale’s newest product release, available in Australia exclusively through Schiavello, is justified.
Doing things Diffriently: Humanscale’s Diffrient World Chair
The Diffrient World Chair, named after Humanscale’s ergonomics pioneer Niels Diffrient, is the next evolution of its mesh-backed forerunner, Liberty. It marks the company’s first move into all-mesh task seating, but its true innovation lies with the mechanism-free recline.
With few parts, controls and mechanisms, the Diffrient World chair uses a unique weight-sensitive recline to automatically adapt to every user who sits in the chair. The innovative design adjusts to each user by utilising only two components: body weight and the laws of physics. This design provides appropriate levels of recline resistance, no matter the user’s size, without the need to operate manual controls.
Its responsive, pivoting backrest automatically adapts to the changing needs of the spine as the user moves, and with armrests attached to the back rather than seat pan, the chair offers support through the full range of recline. The frameless, mesh front edge on the seat pan provides soft support under the thighs for all-day sitting comfort.
In a world where office workers spend as much as 80% of their work day sitting, the task chair can be a hugely important part of the ergonomic mix. By not requiring the user to make manual adjustments throughout the day, the Diffrient World chair offers a user-friendly and intuitive way to support people, improve comfort, maximise productivity, and even avoid injury at work.