Office Chairs : Ratings of Sources

Our AssessmentThis German-based organization stages one of the largest and most prestigious annual design competitions in the world. Products win the Red Dot award for exemplary design and how well they integrate design and functionality. Each year a few Red Dot winners are designated the Best of the Best; for 2010, the Humanscale Diffrient World office chair wins this award. Another office chair, the German-made AC 4 by Vitra Inc., won Best of the Best for 2009. In past years the Steelcase Think and Herman Miller Mirra office chairs have won Red Dot awards. This article on the 2010 Red Dot winners includes short reviews of each of them, and links take you to write-ups from previous years.

Our AssessmentIn this video review Jonathan Blum of Fortune Small Business demonstrates and assesses two fairly expensive chairs, the Herman Miller Embody and the Knoll Generation chairs. The Embody has been his favorite for a while, he says, and he highly recommends it. The Generation chair was introduced only recently; Blum likes the design ideas behind it and will be interested to see how well it does in the market. He thinks it looks a little "clunky," though.

Our AssessmentAbe Abbas, About.com's guide to furniture, discusses his choices for the top five high-end office chairs. A short paragraph describes each of the chairs, but chairs aren't compared to each other, and it's unclear whether any testing was involved. There is a link to a full review of the new Herman Miller Aeron chair, which is said to be a classic, in part because of its adjustable height and lumbar support. The Steelcase Leap, Steelcase Think and Humanscale Freedom are also discussed. (Note: ConsumerSearch is owned by About.com, but the two don't share an editorial affiliation.)

Our AssessmentTwo architects and designers give their opinions of six ergonomic office chairs. Wayne Koch focuses only on aesthetics in the three chairs he discusses. Florencia Kratsman, on the other hand, assesses comfort, functionality and sustainability issues as she discusses the Steelcase Leap, Knoll Generation, and Herman Miller Embody chairs. There are brief descriptions of the chairs, but no indication of whether these two designers tried them out before writing about them.

Our AssessmentBlogger "hipstomp" reviews the Herman Miller Setu chair, having tried it out for three months. Although some reviewers caution that the Setu chair is not meant for long hours of sitting, this reviewer writes that "the comfort level alone easily makes this an all-day chair." In the end, he recommends the chair highly as a "comfortable, cutting-edge-design" chair that won't break the budget, for an entire office full of workers or someone who works from home.

Our AssessmentOfficeChairAdvice.com is a website devoted to office seating founded by Duncan McIntyre, a 25-year veteran of the office chair business. The site is neatly organized and there are ratings and detailed reviews of a number of popular chairs. There's also a blog about seating of all kinds, and McIntyre certainly finds a lot to say about this area. No testing or comparison with other models appears to have been done, however, and a lot of chairs receive 5-star ratings. McIntyre does supply tons of good office-chair background information, and this site is a good prep for shopping for office chairs.

Our AssessmentThis single-product review focuses on the Diffrient World chair by designer Niels Diffrient, who also designed Humanscale's Freedom and Liberty chairs. It includes a number of features that allow it to adjust automatically to the user, without the use of manual controls. Reviewer Jennifer Busch interviews Diffrient and says this chair represents an extension of his earlier designs, which reflect a "less is more" philosophy.

Our AssessmentBest Buy sells more than 40 different mid- to low-priced office chairs, most of them Office Star or True Seating models. Only a few have enough user reviews to provide a good picture of how comfortable and functional they are. Of these, the True Seating Microfiber Executive Chair and True Seating Puresoft Task Chair receive enough positive reviews to warrant mention as budget models. True Seating's Just Simple Leather Executive Chair costs a bit more (though it's still budget priced) and also gets good reviews.

Our AssessmentOffice Depot sells hundreds of office chairs, including models by Realspace, Raynor, HON and Office Star. Not many models have user reviews at all, and of those only a handful have enough to be significant. Realspace models seem to be popular here, and three of them -- the PRO 9000 Series 60% Recycled Mid-Back Multifunction Mesh Chair With Head Rest, PRO Quantum 60% Recycled Mesh Midback Task Chair and Carnaby High-Back Mesh Chair -- have a number of reviews and high ratings from users.

Our AssessmentSix men and women test an unknown number of chairs for comfort, adjustability and appearance. The results for four chairs are given, and the office chairs are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. The Steelcase Think is the top pick, with a rating of 4. The reviewers say it gives excellent support, although it looks a bit "homely." The Humanscale Liberty, Steelcase Leap and Herman Miller Mirra are also reviewed. We would have rated this review higher if it were more recent.

Our AssessmentHaving asked readers about what office chair he should buy, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes follows up by describing his new Aeron chair. He writes that although he's only had it for a day, he can already say that "it's by far the best office chair I've ever sat in." In addition to being comfortable, it's extremely well made, he says.

Our AssessmentThis blog is part of a larger site run by office furniture retailer The Human Solution. Articles and reviews appear to be written by the staff, but reviews are reasonably balanced, mentioning both good and bad features. One helpful article discusses the functions of ergonomic chairs and suggests specific models costing under $500 that meet ergonomic criteria. A review of the Steelcase Amia details specific features of the chair, comparing it to the Steelcase Leap and Think chairs; according to the review the Amia has many of their features at a lower price.