I was reading in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink about the development of the Aeron chair and how the limitations of customer research almost killed it. I am so glad the folks at Herman Miller went with their guts and decided to press on despite the negative feedback. (People rated it as very comfortable, but also very ugly. It turned out "ugly" just meant it was shockingly different. Now everyone copies the look.)
I spend hours a day, every day, in my Aeron chair. And I never get up from it thinking about my butt or back. The chair works so well for me that it essentially disappears.
Seven hundred and something bucks was a lot to pay for a chair, but fifteen years later, it has been worth every penny. I think back to the chairs I had before the Aeron and I cringe. It's a good thing I was young and my body was durable, or I would have been crippled up by them.
Blink was a fascinating book. Have you read Outliers? Some flawed logic in parts, but fascinating in others.
Posted by: Sue M | 10 February 2012 at 13:35