The Balance Chair

What it does

Too much time spent sitting optimizing for productivity or having difficulties transitioning between tasks hurts our health and creativity. Instead the Balance Chair tilts you out of your seat so you can add more movement to your work day.

Your inspiration

We spend way too much time sitting—and it’s hurting our health and creativity. In desk research I found that during the pandemic, the average workday got 50 minutes longer, and many remote workers found themselves sitting for over 6.5 hours straight as the boundaries between workplace and home blurred. I like many others was an “active couch potato” who exercised daily but rarely stood up while working. This project made me consider whether the ubiquitous chair should always only afford sitting, whether something built for resting could also promote standing, and what it would be like for a chair to help you in achieving your health habits.

How it works

Unlike other office chairs the Balance Chair gently tilts you out of your seat using a linear actuator connected to the bottom of the chair's seat. At customizable time intervals the chair's seat rises overcoming any internal negotiation you may have previously needed to stand, and the seat stays up for however long you've programmed it for. While you're standing feel free to keep working or grab a stretch and a snack. The seat lowers back down inviting you to jump back into your work refreshed and ready to go.

Design process

I started by researching why some people naturally get up during the day while others stay sedentary. The difference? External triggers like pets, kids, in-person meetings vs. relying on internal motivation. I sketched 20+ ideas to act as a physical prompt from wild to mild including a chair that rotates 180° away from screens on a timer to one made of ice that melts out from under you. I landed on a more practical option, a chair that tilts you out using a linear actuator. I built low-fidelity prototypes from cardboard, tape, and even Lego figurines. Over time I made the prototypes more realistic by attaching components to my kitchen chairs. After struggling to teach myself circuitry and woodworking, I enlisted my school’s woodshop teacher to help me attach a linear actuator to a barstool I thrifted. To trigger the actuator on a timer, I fortunately discovered pre-built kits used by farmers on Youtube that automatically open chicken coop doors. We mounted the actuator to a seat we hinged onto the frame. When activated, it pushed users into a standing position. At a thesis demo, no one could sit through it. I later tested it with my partner, a lawyer with chronic pain. While some bias is surely likely, he got the same amount of work done as expected with less reported pain.

How it is different

Chairs have been around for thousands of years in civilizations ranging from the Aztecs to Ancient Egyptians. Chairs have afforded stationary sitting in all but a small number of years since their conception. However in modern times, the combination of technology that demands our attention, a narrative that humans must be productive at all times and chairs optimized for longer term seating and comfort have produced more sedentary behavior, something that's damaging to our health and creativity. The Balance Chair affords just that - balance between our working and personal lives. While the chair affords standing it also provides us, even among the most hyperfixated of us a chance, to stand away from our task and check in with ourselves and any bodily signals we may need to address. Usability testing (2 hrs/day over 2 days) showed that while using the Balance Chair one user, a busy lawyer, worked just as effectively with less pain and longer breaks.

Future plans

I plan on reaching out to ADHD organizations to usability test the chair with potential users I believe would benefit from the chair's affordances. I also plan to make the timer attached to the chair more usable and aesthetically pleasing - It is currently a timer from a kit for a chicken coop door. I would also like to make the chair more ergonomic as it is a retrofitted bar stool I purchased from a thrift store. I plan on reaching out to companies like Herman Miller who actually inspired the chair and finding a collaborator for an industrially produced version of the chair.

Awards

While the chair has not won any awards yet, it was mentioned on NPR's TED Radio Hour "Body Electric" podcast in 2024. The podcast focuses on how our bodies change in the Information Age. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1217981506?ft=nprml&f=1217981506#:~:text=OK%2C%20on%20to,Balanced%20Chair%20(ph).