Office in Motion

Future vision to move more in the office.

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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. The control input is from the sensors in the chair and the code 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. I made the first prototypes from wood during the lockdown, and evolved into complex metal mechanical chairs to sit on. Adding the sensors to the mechanics made it complicated. 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 typical 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, and 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. She told me the benefits of moving more while you work and showed me exercises or movements 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.

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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 chose multiple colours on the seat textile to trigger the user's positive mood and interest.

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