Steelcase Australia announces a new range of seating designed in response to the company’s latest research into changing workplace postures. Revolutionary in design, Gesture from Steelcase has been inspired by studying the movement of the human body and created specifically for the way people work today.
Steelcase’s global study reveals that new technologies have led to nine new postures, not supported by currently available office chairs. Spanning 11 countries and observing over 2000 people in a wide range of environments, company researchers discovered nine new postures resulting from the use of new workplace technologies. If ignored, these postures can lead to pain, discomfort and long-term injury for workers.
James Ludwig, Steelcase Vice President of Global Design explains the user interface of modern technologies is intuitive and responds to various gestures. However, the way technology impacts the human body as it works has been largely ignored. For instance, tablets were introduced only three years ago but users sit on chairs designed long before these devices even entered the work environment.
Steelcase’s new Gesture chairs have been designed following deep research into the changes that have occurred in the physiology and sociology of the modern workplace. Observing how the human body interacts with new technologies, how it transitions as people shift between devices, how people continuously move between individual, focussed tasks and creative collaboration, and how each new activity causes people to change postures, the researchers provided the input based on which Steelcase designed Gesture’s three key interfaces – the core interface, upper limb interface and seat interface – to support new postures driven by technology in the workplace.
For instance, Gesture chairs encourage motion rather than forcing the body to hold a single posture. The upper limb interface allows people to draw closer to the work surface to avoid hunching over a screen. Gesture’s core interface hugs the lower back when the user reclines to scroll on a tablet screen. The seat interface adjusts rapidly to help users avoid perching on the edge of their chair.
Gesture office chairs embrace a broad range of body sizes and easily adapt to meet the needs of the individual user, which is a critical requirement for the diverse workforce of today’s business environment.
Carol Stuart Buttle, CPE, Principal at Stuart-Buttle Ergonomics comments that Gesture helps workers find support in smarter ways so they can use their devices in safer ways.
