Touchscreen interfaces are verging on honorary appendages, and our daily physicality has evolved as a result. Nowadays, we’re Strunching. The Gesture chair by Steelcase is purpose-designed to support all of nine new Steelcase-coined postures (like the “Strunch” and the “Smart Lean”), which are the result of a global study on how the body behaves when interacting with modern technology. It’s hard on our bones and muscles to be surveying our latest Powerpoint presentation (reclined in the “Take It In”) one minute, and curled up as we cuddle with our notebooks to watch a cute puppy video (in the “Cocoon”) the next — especially when we transition between all these postures all day, every day.
So how exactly do you design a chair to keep up with entrenched bad habits? The articulated arms of the chair adjust effortlessly — up, down, in, in out, etc., — to support our real arms when we’re holding a phone in front of our face; the spine of the chair mimics our own backbone, curling forward and backward to follow our body’s movements without skipping a beat. The seat is cushioned and flexible to its edges, easing strain on curled-under legs and supporting body weight even when we’re leaned forward in the scared-feline-back-curve Strunch posture. In short, it’s a lot of great innovation for the desk warrior. Here’s hoping you don’t have stock in Aleve.