What Made the Aeron Chair an Icon

fastcodesign.com

5 points·ohjeez··2 comments

The article talks about the design choices as the reason for success but I think the expense of the chair and need to perceive some related value caused the, in my opinion, over-rated reputation, coders attributing their 14hr marathons and their 10x factors to some chair, in some instances their new physical posture, tone and health all due to the magic of a $1000+ chair.

In my experience having worked in an office which was all Aeron chairs for several months I feel no different now on this $100 office mate chair or any of similar priced chair at the various co-working places I visit. I should note too Im not exactly in great shape.

tl;dr - price and talk made the Aeron chair an icon

100% agree - it's a status symbol. Anyone remember the "consulting" that came with it to learn the 1000 different adjustments? Dot-com at it's peak.

I added an adjustable-height keyboard tray screwed into the bottom of a desk and it will give anyone much better ergo than any chair alone.

Each time I get one, I replace it with a patio/lawn chair (+keyboard tray) and cut the legs to my height - those are actually designed to be sat in for hours. The first time my boss was a bit perturbed until I put the "extra" chair in his office.

A copy of the AIA Graphic Standards Manual[1] has charts for work tables and desks shows just how wrong not having a keyboard tray is for ergo.

[1] http://www.graphicstandards.com/

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