The term “Ergonomics” can be traced back to 19th Century when Polish scientist Wojciech Jastrzebowski coined the word by combining the Greek ergon (work) and nomos (principle or law). However, the application of ergonomics in furniture design didn’t take off until 1970s. Today, when you type “ergonomics furniture” in the Google search bar, you’ll receive about twelve million results in just half a second.
Most offices nowadays will provide some sort of ergonomic furniture to employees, either just a few adjustable chairs or an extensive range of furniture and accessories to make sure their staff can work comfortably. Interestingly, this change was probably driven by the increasing lawsuits from workers with newfound pain in their bodies, so large corporations and businesses made it a priority to outfit their offices with ergonomic chairs throughout the 1990s.
Of course, the pain is real. While neck pain and back problems are on the top of the list of poor posture woes, there are many others – such as poor balance, headaches, low circulations, digestion problems and improper lung function. Researchers are also investigating whether posture affects mood, sleep, fatigue, and jaw alignment.
There are many trendy choices of ergonomic design to support the right posture – such as sit-stand desk, foot rocker, laptop holder and mouse. However, for those who spend the majority of their working time in front of a desk, the most important one is a good ergonomic chair. Differing from traditional office chairs, ergonomic chairs ensure the user’s body is kept in a safe and upright position to reduce stress on the spine, neck and hips.
You may be surprised to hear that an ergonomic chair that can be adjusted in different ways is still not suitable for many women. The fact is, employees in smaller build account for 25% of the workforce and are primarily female. The average Australian female is now 5ft3. A standard ergonomic chair could be too tall, the seat depth is too long which cuts off circulation, it doesn’t have suitable lumbar adjustability and has a generic back.
To optimise a design that caters to women’s needs, Gregory decided to bring together a group of talented women with backgrounds across engineering, marketing, product assembly, science and procurement.
Project W was born. It features a shorter seat depth, Gregory’s patented Dual Density foam with new additional Coccyx relief system, additional adjustable lumbar support, a modern sculpted back and fully adjustable seat tilt, back tilt and height.
The icing on the top? Men can also use the Project W chair – it is designed to suit 99.9% of women and 99% of men.