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Design
Story The two
designers began this development process with a clean slate, with no
assumptions about form or material, but with some strong convictions
about what a chair ought to do for a person. Ergonomically,
it ought to do more than just sit there. It should actively intercede
for the health of the person who sits in it longer than she should. Functionally,
it ought to move and adjust as simply and naturally as possible. It
should support a person in any position he cares to assume, at any task
his office job serves up. Anthropometrically,
it ought to be more inclusive than its predecessors. It should do more
than accommodate small or large people; it should really fit them. Environmentally,
it ought to be benign. It should be sparing of natural resources,
durable and repairable, designed for disassembly and recycling. The
design that fulfilled these criteria met all expectations and shattered
some of them. It wasn't upholstered. It wasn't padded. It was
dimensioned in three models that looked exactly alike and that had
nothing to do with their users' job titles. It didn't look like any
other office chair. And its revolutionary concept incorporated more
patentable ideas than any previous Herman Miller research program. "It was a
matter of deliberate design to create a 'new signature shape' for the
Aeron chair," says designer Bill Stumpf. "Competitive ergonomic chairs
became look-alikes. Differentiation was a huge part of the Aeron design
strategy, and it remains one of, if not the most, critical aspects of
Aeron's success. "The
human form has no straight lines, it is biomorphic. We designed the
chair to be above all biomorphic, or curvilinear, as a metaphor of
human form in the visual as well as the tactile sense. There is not one
straight line to be found on an Aeron chair. "The
Pellicle was equally a deliberate design strategy in that its
transparency symbolizes the free flow of air to the skin in the same
way lace, window screens, and other permeable membranes permit the flow
of air or light or moisture. The transparency of the chair as a visual
element was in keeping with the idea of transparent architecture and
technology, which Aeron pioneered in advance of Apple's transparent
iMac computers. Transparency is a major design movement. Its purpose is
to make technology less opaque, to communicate the inner workings of
things, and to make objects less intrusive in the environment. Aeron is
a non-intrusive chair." The Aeron
design was refined and validated through research and experts'
opinions: - It was
tested for comfort with scores of users, pitting it against the best
work chairs available. - Leading
ergonomists, orthopedic specialists, and physical therapists evaluated
the chair's fit and motion, the benefit and ease of its adjustments. - The
design team conducted anthropometric studies across the country, using
a specially developed instrument to calculate everything from popliteal
height to forearm length. - The
research team did pressure mapping and thermal testing to determine the
weight distribution and heat- and moisture-dissipating qualities of the
Pellicle material on the chair's seat and back. - Field
studies using a specially-designed measuring device examined the
relationship between sizes of people and their preference for chair
size (Dowell 1995b). Measurements of 224 people--in a sample that was
evenly distributed between men and women and that closely reflected the
distribution of the U.S. population on most dimensions--found that of
all the anthropometric dimensions measured, height and weight had the
strongest relationship to chair size preference. The relationship is
strong enough to allow us to recommend one of the three chair sizes
based on those dimensions. Although
it reveals its aesthetic heritage in lyrical shapes reminiscent of
George Nelson designs, organic forms that recall the work of Charles
Eames, and a spare, athletic aspect that brings to mind its designers'
Equa chair, the Aeron chair finally looks only like itself. Its unique
form expresses its purpose and use and the material composition of its
parts and the way they connect. The slightly transparent and reflective
nature of its surfaces gives it an airy quality. It becomes a part of
the person who uses it and the environment that surrounds it. Made
largely of recycled materials, the Aeron chair is designed to last a
long time, with parts that get the most wear easily replaced and
recycled. Just what you would expect in a well thought-out design. |
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