Have you ever wondered how far office chairs have evolved over the years? From the wooden chairs of the past to today’s adjustable ergonomic chairs, office chairs have seen continuous development and refinement. In this blog, we will take a look at the history and evolution of office chairs and how they’ve become more comfortable and supportive.
Prior to the 19th century, the majority of the population was agrarian. This meant that "office chairs" were significant only to academics or rich government officials. Though chairs have been quite common since 1900 BC, it is believed that naturalist Charles Darwin was the first person to be known to have used an early version of an office chair. He added wheels to a regular chair that allowed him to swivel between lab specimens. After the onset of the Industrial Revolution, more people were needed for administrative tasks like bookkeeping and logistical coordination. This gave rise to administrative personnel and managers who needed to sit in offices for long hours doing business-related tasks. The rise of this clerical cadre and the need to make them comfortable were the driving factors in designing feature-packed office chairs.
The first office chair to be mass-produced was Thomas Warren's Centripetal Office Armchair. This chair's casters and swivel mechanism made it easier for workers to reach objects without getting up. It had velvet upholstery, cast iron frames, and a frilly "skirt" to hide the seat's springs. But the chair wasn't much of a success due to the prevalent Victorian propriety that regarded comfortable chairs as immoral. But Victorian morality slowly disappeared as office workers started to become the backbone of the economy. Specialty chairs started to appear for dentists and barbers, which slowly powered the innovation of office chairs.
During the beginning of the twentieth century, desk jobs became commonplace, and inventors started to come up with more designs for office chairs. But, they failed to prioritize comfort during the 1900s. The main focus was the architectural alignment of the chair with the surrounding office space. This is because managers continued to associate comfort with laziness, and design choices continued to be driven by cost and compatibility with the dominant architectural style.
In 1904, designer F. L. Wright developed a chair intended to improve the posture and comfort of typists. This chair, called the Larkin Building chair, regrettably quickly earned the moniker "suicide chair" because of its unstable seat and propensity to topple over while the user was seated.
Office chairs started to evolve into a distinctive shape after the Second World War. Around this time, industries that made military instruments, including plane cockpits and tanks, benefited greatly from ergonomic research. These studies vastly influenced the innovations in office chairs, which were also driven by rapid industrialization after the war in the United States.
Though numerous designs for office chairs have appeared throughout history, modern ergonomics didn't truly take off until the 1970s. Giancarlo Piretti and Emilio Ambasz's Vertebra Chair was among the earliest automatically adjustable chairs ever made available on the market. This chair was created to react and adjust to human movements and offer support and comfort.
The iconic Ergon Chair was developed in 1976 by Bill Stumpf, a designer for Herman Miller, and is regarded as a ground-breaking innovation in the field of task seating design. This chair was made with the intention of enhancing human comfort as well as preserving physical health. It had five-star legs, castors aiding effortless gliding, a foam-filled back and seat, levers to change tilt and height, and more intricate spine support. Stumpf had researched orthopedics and used timelapse photography to analyze the motions of office staff. He introduced features like enhanced height adjustability using the latest ergonomics research. Previously, although the average female's leg measures 16" from their thigh to the ground, the chairs used descended over 18".
During the tech boom of the 1990s, Herman Miller, now synonymous with modern furniture, introduced yet another innovative office chair design. The Aeron Chair, created by Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick, met the needs of the body as well as the eye. The "pellicle" breathable mesh back and reactive tilt, which helps control body temperature and support the user's back, were its two most remarkable characteristics.
The development of office and ergonomic chairs was also influenced by cultural changes. The Gesture Chair from Steelcase was produced in 2013 in response to the societal distress caused by the horrific Sandy Hook tragedy. Nine previously unidentified positions were discovered using this chair, which was designed to research how individuals utilize their workspaces all day long. These discoveries laid the groundwork for future technologies that would ensure that people were kept healthy.
Steelcase also designed a SILQ chair in 2018 that can adjust to the shape of the user's body without the use of knobs or levers. The creative design adapts to the way our bodies move naturally to offer a seating option that is tailored to different uses for total support and comfort.
At Discount Office, we sell an incredible range of office chairs. For the best quality, low prices and fast delivery, choose Discount Office for your next ergonomic chair.
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Small changes can make a mighty impact. High-quality ergonomic chairs can transform your existing workstations into productive hubs by contributing to your physical and mental health.
But how do ergonomic chairs help make a positive impact?
Sitting for hours can have a negative impact on health. If your work involves long sitting hours, then using an ergonomic chair is essential. Using non-ergonomic chairs can result in body aches, muscle tenderness and back pain.
Too much sitting can stress the joints and the spine. Hips and shoulders are affected. A poor posture only worsens the problem. Seated individuals tend to slouch or raise their necks up to look at computer screens or other devices. This posture, over time creates a posture misalignment.
Excessive sitting, over time, can also lead to:
Any injury or pain resulting from improper seating at work, is reduced with well-chosen ergonomic chairs.
An ergonomic chair helps by offering a comfortable and right seating position. When seating is ergonomic, users enjoy a comfortable position. Users are able to focus and deliver their best, which increases productivity.
Users whose work requires them to sit for longer periods can benefit from the Buro Aura Ergo+ High Back Ergonomic Office Chair.
This is a high-back chair with open sitting and back-resting adjustments. The chair allows users to tweak it to your personal seating and back-resting preferences. The seat and back tilt can be adjusted to a fixed position or left free-floating.
Designed specifically for individuals seated for 8+ hours, this ergonomic chair comes with a 10-year guarantee. The gas-lift height adjustment for the seat carries a lifetime guarantee.
The chair is guaranteed for safety for user weights up to 150kg. High-quality is guaranteed as the chair has been manufactured in a factory with a ISO9001 & ISO14001 certification.
Users can focus only when they are comfortable sitting for long hours. Non-ergonomic chairs cause discomfort and pain as they are unable to fit to the user’s body. As a result, the user assumes a wrong posture. Improper posture leads to neck and back issues. In addition, poor posture can cause incontinence, heartburn and reduced digestive ability.
Ergonomic office chairs support the right sitting posture. These chairs are specifically designed to overcome sitting challenges in standard chairs. The best ergonomic chairs adapt to the user’s body. As a result, the body aligns naturally to the chair.
Ergonomic office chairs come with excellent back and head support to support user’s posture. They are adaptable to the body as different people have different height requirements. When seated on an ergonomic chair, users can rest their feet flat, adjust seat height for the right positioning, and keep knees parallel to the hips.
As posture improves, users are able to focus better and deliver better, facilitating increased productivity.
The Bentley Highback Executive Chair – Assembled, is a chair designed for focus and productivity. The wondrous design of the chair offers multiple ergonomic features, from customized lumbar support to self-adjusting seating.
The chair employs an advanced mechanism that enables the seat to self-adjust in accordance with the backrest. There is an amazing anti-whiplash protection feature for safe backrest adjustment.
Built on a sturdy structure, this executive chair offers 15-year warranty.
A splendid visual appeal meets robust performance. Make transforming decisions from the comfort of your seat!
Comfort is paramount when you're going to be in a seated position for prolonged hours. In tough times, when decisions need to be made and tasks need to be accomplished at any cost, a furniture that doesn’t give up is key. An ergonomic chair is designed to be your best companion during all times.
An ergonomic chair delivers excellent comfort as it is customizable. From the seats to the backrest, the chair can be adjusted to different comfort needs. With desired comfort, longer hours and extra time at the workplace will not seem so long!
The Eden Tag 2-lever Midback Ergonomic Chair with Highlift and Footring, has been designed for customized comfort.
A chair for every workspace, the Eden offers impressive comfort for the mid-back. There are 3 customizable heights for the backrest and 2 customizable sizes for the seat. Together, these features make for an ergonomic setting for most of the users. There is an adjustable footring for maximum comfort.
With a GreenGuard Gold certification and a 10-year warranty, the Eden is built for comfort and value for money.
Productivity demands unwavering attention to tasks at hand. Distractions such as physical discomfort and pain can lead to irritation and stress. These factors impact productivity. An ergonomic chair drives away distractions by enabling users to define their own seating.
When every individual attains a comfort personalized to their own needs, the workstation becomes a focus hub and not a pocket of physical harassment. Seating, backrest, armrest and other customizations, are easy to set. With the user set in their comfort zone, the task at hand is ready for swift completion.
The Cloud Mesh Office Chair with Arm Rest is a perfect fit for offices looking to provide exceptional comfort for a 8-hour workday, every day.
The chair features a breathable mesh backrest for efficient circulation. The foam seat is designed for comfort and a height-adjustable seat adds to the comfort. There is an impressive lumbar support and detachable armrests for good posture and comfort.
This chair comes with a comfort rating for 8+ hours of seating, and a 5-year warranty.
The comfort of a work environment is key to promoting office productivity. A chair is the fundamental aspect of a productive work environment.
An ergonomic chair sets the tone for an user-friendly workstation and improved office health.
A high-quality ergonomic chair encourages the best thinking and work with its ability to adapt to employees using the chair.
Ergonomic chairs are not a luxury but a necessity. They need not be expensive. Discount Office offers an exceptional line of budget-friendly ergonomic chairs with generous warranties. Explore the range now.
As we head back into Covid-19 Alert Level 2/3 on 28 February 2021, we wanted to share what that meant for your orders.
We will continue to operate normally and are able to process all orders for all product lines for all customers.
Please be patient with deliveries during this time. To speed up the deliveries for some items, we may ship your orders via multiple deliveries.
As usual, please reach out to us if you have any questions about this or any other topic.
]]>As we head back into Covid-19 Alert Level 2/3 on 15 February 2021, we wanted to share what that meant for your orders.
We will continue to operate normally and are able to process all orders for all product lines for all customers.
Please be patient with deliveries during this time. To speed up the deliveries for some items, we may ship your orders via multiple deliveries.
As usual, please reach out to us if you have any questions about this or any other topic.
]]>As we head back into Covid-19 Alert Level 3 on 12 August 2020, we wanted to share what that meant for your orders.
We will continue to operate normally and are able to process all orders for all product lines for all customers. However, as we've seen with the previous lockdowns, delivery may be delayed due to the added load on the courier network.
Please be patient with deliveries during this time. To speed up the deliveries for some items, we may ship partial orders.
As usual, please reach out to us if you have any questions about this or any other topic.
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Starting Tuesday 28th April, we are pleased to report that we will be back to operating normally and able to process all orders for all product lines for all customers.
When you place an order from early next week, we are able to process and deliver most of them at our advertised delivery times. However, some courier delivery may be delayed due to demand for courier delivery during Level 3. To speed up fulfilment, some orders may be sent as separate deliveries.
As usual, please reach out to us if you have any questions about this or any other topic.
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Discount Office is accepting orders for all products on our website for the entire duration of the Covid-19 Level 4 restrictions. However only selected items classified as 'essential' can be supplied to approved ‘Essential’ classified customers from our associated suppliers and warehouses which are running at reduced capacity and are in-line with Covid-19 guidelines and procedures.
All non-essential orders for the selected products and any other from our website will be dispatched after the Level 4 trading restrictions is relaxed or downgraded.
Our current products available are:
Office Supplies
All products with SKU codes starting with CX & AC
Ink & Toner
All products with SKU codes starting with DS & FP
Labels for label printers
All products with SKU codes starting with DS & FP
Whiteboards
All products with SKU codes starting with BV
Office Furniture
All products with SKU codes starting with KG and BS
Eftpos Rolls
All products with SKU codes starting with FP
Papers
SKU codes starting with KM & BJ
Laminating Machines and supplies
Selected products with SKU codes starting with FP
Binding Machines and supplies
Selected products with SKU codes starting with FP
Precut Labels
SKU codes FPILA4
Fellowes products
All products with SKU codes starting with FPF
3M products
All products with SKU codes starting with FP
Pilot products
All products with SKU codes starting with FP
Whiteboards
All products with SKU codes starting with BV
We hope to be back serving you with our full range of products as soon as Level 4 trading restrictions are lifted.
Thank you for your patience.
]]>At Discount Office, we've been developing next generation technology allowing us to deliver office products to you almost instantly.
The technology we've been hard at work developing does away with waiting for your deliveries altogether. Simply add your products to cart as you normally would, and on checking out choose to deliver with our 3DPrintDelivery™ technology. Your chosen products print straight from your printer! No more waiting for the delivery man.
We think we're in the final stages of development and will be launching April 31. See the video below to see how our 3DPrintDelivery™ technology works.
April Fools!
]]>Choosing a whiteboard is an important step in the journey to purchasing one. We lay out 7 things to look for when buying a whiteboard.
It begins with why you need the whiteboard and what you'll use it for. No one whiteboard will solve all use cases so you have to know exactly what the end goal you have in mind. Do you need to travel with it? - you've immediately eliminated the larger immobile variety. Starting with what your intended use is will help you answer the remainder of the questions below.
A common use of the whiteboard is to stick it in a meeting room. These are great as a collaboration tool, to articulate, expand and impart ideas to a wider group. Maybe you or your team likes leaving ideas on the board to keep for extended periods of time. A larger whiteboard, while taking up more space and needing a larger room to house, is essential for a large office filled with lots creative people. While the option of sticking an entire wall with whiteboard material is open to some, for many a large room size whiteboard is the next best option.
As a rule, get the biggest whiteboard you can fit in your office.
Whiteboards need markers and erasers, all of which needs to be stored when not in use. These have a tendency to get lost over the course of time. Getting a whiteboard that is magnetic avoids that. Some magnetic whiteboards accompany a magnetic pen holder fit for a few markers. They're very practical and indispensable once you get used to them. Your eraser also needs a place to go when not in use. Your magnetic eraser will stick to your magnetic whiteboard ... like a magnet.
Also, prefer whiteboards that come with a tray to keep all your whiteboard accessories.
If you have a wall, use it to stick the whiteboard on. This will keep the floor free of whiteboard stands which will get in the way in small rooms. As an added bonus, you can choose the exact height the whiteboard will be set at, which isn't always possible with a stand.
If you're undecided where your whiteboard will go, or want to have the option of moving it around from one side of the room to another, a stand with wheels is an absolute must. Looks for wheels with locks which prevents the whiteboard from going on a ride.
Some whiteboards are fitted with a corkboard. If you have a lot of paper to share, these can be great for you and your team. However, they do take half of the whiteboard. Your use cases will help you decide if these are right for you.
A cheaper quality whiteboard might be easier on the pocket to begin with, but with whiteboards the brand names matter. Look for brands that have been stood the test of time, have good reputation and are easy to set up. Each brand has a slight twist on how they put together their whiteboards. While for most users, these are minor details, ultimately a sturdy good quality whiteboard at an affordable price is what most users are looking for.
When buying big ticket items you want to do business with reputable retailers who have been around and will likely stay around for years to come. At the same time, you don't want to overpay for essential office products. Discount Office works with you to offer you quality products at great prices. We believe our whiteboards find a good balance between quality and price topped with customer service to beat high street retailers.
See our collection of whiteboards today.
]]>With PartPay, our customers can choose to buy products on a payment plan. Instead of paying a lump sum up-front, customers pay 1/4 at check out with the rest due in equal amounts every fortnight. Payments are available without any extra fees, surcharges and is free of interest.
Discount Office is committed to providing flexible payment options to our customers and adding PartPay is another step towards servicing many types of customers with diverse payment preferences.
Use the guide below to see how you can pay by instalments.
Select the items you want to purchase as usual and add them to your cart. When checking out, select PartPay as your payment method when on the payment page. Selecting this will redirect you to PartPay's website where you will be either login to your PartPay account or register for a new account if you don't already have one.
If it's your first purchase via PartPay, they will need some details from you: Name, Date of Birth, Address and Drivers License Number. This allows them to perform a quick and automatic identification and credit assessment. This is instantaneous and if approved, you will pay the first instalment. PartPay then notifies us and we'll dispatch the order as usual.
There is no interest or fees, and our prices are still the same if you were paying via another payment method. There is a default fee if you miss your regular instalments however.
Your instalments are due every fortnight until the full amount is repaid. But you can choose to repay part or all of your instalments before they become due.
The total order amount must be $50 and $1000. PartPay uses other criteria such as how many other orders you are currently paying instalments for.
Yes, PartPay will send you a text and email the day before they take the instalment payment. You must ensure that you have sufficient funds in your account for this to go through.
As always, if you have any questions on PartPay or anything else, email us at shop@discountoffice.co.nz and we'll reply asap with answers.
]]>Knowledge-bases are fundamental to any business that wants to retain and share knowledge with all its employees. Not all information is retained by employees all the time, and whatever is retained is not shared with others in the business. Knowledge-bases are tailor-made to solve these and other problems. A good knowledge-base allows a business to store information about many topics and make this information accessible to all in the business when it is needed.
Our list records five of the best hosted knowledge-bases we tried. We didn't try self-hosted or downloadable knowledge-bases because - its 2018! With a hosted solution, employees are free to access the knowledge from anywhere. Removing any friction from accessing information is key to making full use of a knowledge-base.
Website: slite.com
Slite is easily our favourite for its collaboration features alone. It takes feedback and comments seriously - which shows in its feature-rich and deep commenting features. It comes with a beautiful user interface and an easy to use experience. Your team will easily navigate around Slite to find what they're looking for.
Website: www.notion.so
Notion is a product that is so simple yet is incredibly effective. It comes with downloadable apps or the default choice of using it on a web browser. It claims a huge set of features which are readily available. While others on this list require some hunting to get to more advanced features, with Notion, they are easily accessible.
A selection of integrations with your favourite software is also available.
Website: monday.com
A more recent entrant on our radar, we like Monday. Monday crams a lot into its product. It's beautifully developed with many use cases in mind. It claims some features that others on this list doesn't have. Although we have yet to require those features personally.
While a compelling product if you need project management and some of its other features, as a stand-alone knowledge-base it may appear unnecessary.
Website: www.nuclino.com.
Nuclino is a clean and modern knowledge-base. It has a great look and feel and user experience. Knowledge can be shared more visually than other offerings we've looked at in our list.
There are also downloadable apps if you're on the move, although a mobile web browser is almost equally as easy to use.
Unlike some of the other knowledge-bases on this list, Nuclino is very tidy and easily gets out of your way so you can get right to it. On the flip-side however, it misses on some customisations some other mature knowledge-bases have. Most won't find much lacking - although this may be limiting for advanced use cases.
On looks and minimalism alone, Nuclino might top our charts. However, there is one other platform left to cover ...
Website: www.atlassian.com/software/confluence.
No knowledge-base we tested over the years has come close to the feature-set and the ease of use provided by Confluence. Setup is a breeze, especially for smaller businesses not looking to use every little feature it packs.
Your Confluence journey can start with simple wiki pages and grow into a much advanced wiki with the many integrations Confluence provides.
Your business will love Confluence even more if you intend on using issue tracking software. Jira, from the same developer, integrates seamlessly with Confluence and leaves even less reason not to pick Confluence from our list here.
You really can't go wrong with any of the above. Tell us which knowledge-base you're using in the comments and why you like it. If you're not using one already, try one or all of the above platforms today. We're sure you'll have an aha moment the next time someone asks a question and its recorded on your knowledge-base!
We still serve the same low prices we did just a week ago and we're still the best place to get a great range of office supplies under one virtual roof.
We'd love to hear from you on how we're doing. Send us an email at shop@discountoffice.co.nz to share your thoughts and what you'd like to see from us in the future.
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