Personal Technology: The Chair

Anyone keeping up with ergonomic research already knows that choice of chair ranks right up there with keyboard placement. I use 3 different chair styles for computing but the one pictured here is the best looking. And it's an award winner. It is the Cachet by Steelcase. It comes in various colors and has choice of wheels or none.

I discovered the chair in a Stanford classroom (during a conference). The speaker explained that the new high tech classrooms were outfitted with Cachet chairs, which proved popular with students. Another handy classroom feature was the ultra lightweight table that hung on the wall (with legs collapsed) when not in use. The most handy feature was the data projection software that allowed students on laptops to "push" their displays up to the main screen for everyone in the room to view.

I couldn't reproduce all those features back at my home institution, but I could start buying Cachet chairs for use by grad students in my office. I found sales via mail order, and I purchased 5 chairs over a year's time—only when the price dipped to $250. I bought the wheeled variety for the carpeted office. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm the chump using personal dollars in the workplace but when I retired I brought them home with me. And that's when I found out the most fun aspect of the Cachet: on a hard surface (see cork floor in photo), these chairs fly. Maybe that was the real source of their popularity with the students at Stanford.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.