Design for Discipline:
Hot Seat and Rising Desktop.
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Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
Abstract
In this paper I discuss several ideas behind the design of the Hot Seat and Rising Desktop, two devices intended to help discipline the body of a user working in a stationary space.
Keywords
Pain, Body, Discomfort, Task, Stasis, Posture, Breaks
ACM Classification Keywords
B.m Hardware: Miscellaneous.
Introduction
This researcher knows very well the tricks for keeping a healthy posture at the work desk. [1] Not only can my desk be accessed from both a standing and sitting position (though the transition is often time-consuming and involves a coffee table), but I know all the stretches and recommended movements one should do to prevent from remaining seated for too long. My chair is at the proper height, supplies both lower and upper-back support, and the center of my monitor is at my natural eye-level. Yet, having the proper set-up and the know-how never seem to stop me from sitting far longer than I should. And so back pain develops, along with, I’m sure, damage. The problem seems to be that when work (or play) is engrossing, it becomes all too easy to lose track of time and not take enough breaks, not move around enough, and to remain sitting until it becomes unhealthy for my body. If I had to name this problem, I would call it a lack of discipline in a state of distraction.
Objective
A work station that promoted good back health was the goal I had in mind. From all the literature I reviewed, it seemed that the best possible chair was one that kicked its user out after a certain amount of time. And it seemed that the most ergonomically correct desk was one that moved with its user, from the chair to a standing position—and everywhere in-between. Thus, this project first imagined a chair that knows how long its user is in it, and can then use actuation to make the user’s body uncomfortable from sitting. Secondly, an idea was suggested by friend and colleague David Nguyen to use a desk whose surface would rise after a certain amount of time prompting the user to rise with the desk if work was to continue. The intended outcome of both of these devices is to create an environment where the body is engaged and asked to move during the act of working for long periods of time in relative stasis.
Alternative Solutions: Take-A-Break Software
There have been various computer programs on the market that attempt to do what these designs do: to remind users to take breaks from working (which implies taking a break from sitting). Take, for example Ergo-Touch Solutions’ “Ergo Stretch” software, [2] which prompts users to take a break, and is capable of shutting down the computer’s main functions for a pre-determined amount of time. The user can choose options within the program that allow a break to be postponed and work to continue—or the user can choose to let the program actually lock down the workstation.
This project conceives of “take-a-break” programs like “Ergo Stretch” as frustrating at the level of the task—they interrupt computer work by locking the computer, even when the user feels he or she could comfortably continue working without the software, which might then be branded nothing more than a neusance and turned off (despite its good intentions). The Hot Seat is designed, on the other hand, to frustrate the user at the level of the body. This distinction is key: stresses on the body produce an urgency that transcend the work space, and thus don’t necessarily feel like intrusions on work directly. Think of how the urge to go to the bathroom presents itself as a discomfort that, when tended to (by leaving the work station), produces a feeling of being refreshed, and is often a welcome break from work—and perhaps also an occasion to socialize or do other things that the worker had intended to do but had put off while distracted with work. Not until the user’s body was made uncomfortable did he or she willingly rise from the work station to do the several things that had been waiting for such an occasion—not the least of which was to stretch and walk around.
Models of Use
The Hot Seat: This chair detects a user’s presence using force sensors, which send signals to a simple cpu unit capable of using the input with a timer and, eventually, of actuating a sharp temperature increase in the chair. If the force sensor’s signal were to be broken at any given moment, the timer would not be reset—it would continue counting to the one-hour mark unless the force sensor failed to send a consistent signal (lasting for more than several minutes) for a sustained period of ten minutes. If ten minutes go by with no consistent signal, then the timer is reset. But if the timer is not reset, then once the one-hour mark is reached, the chair actuates its heater, which heats quickly and continues heating (though never to unsafe levels) until the force sensor stops sending a signal for two minutes, at which time the heater will turn off, but the chair will still remain in “heat” mode, which means that when if force sensor is reactivated in the following fifteen minutes, then the heater turns back on immediately. After fifteen minutes pass without a consistent signal, the chair’s timer is reset.
The Rising Work Station: The rising work station can either use the force sensors in the chair, or else can be programmed to detect consistent computer action in certain programs (that are typically used for long periods of time, depending on the user’s work). After a period of time (this is adjustable in basic options), the desk is activated and it rises to a new position where it can only be used from a standing position. The desk cannot be lowered before fifteen minutes pass, though the user can choose to work longer (and can, in fact, raise or lower the desk at any time during work). Regardless of how often the user works standing up or sitting, the amount of time spent sitting at the desk is limited in the desk’s lowered position. The benefit of this model is that instead of creating physical discomfort, it intrudes upon the body by making a demand that the body stand up to continue work. The user might decide to merely leave the work station and take a break somewhere else, or othewise continue work standing, without much of an interruption at all.
Design Concerns
Thanks to various opportunities that I have had to discuss my project with classmates and friends, several concerns have been raised that need to be addressed. Principle among these are concerns over the safety of a chair heating and the effect it might have on the user—concerns about the threat of sterility or other circulatory complications that are associated with prolonged exposure to increased temperatures. Studies have been done on the effect that resting a laptop on a lap for a prolonged period of time. [3] Such a threat would be a huge concern for this chair, since there is a possibility that a highly determined worker might decide to endure intense heat rather than get up and take a break. Moving foward with this product would require engaging more fully with this concern.
A second set of concerns arise over the safety of the heating device itself, and how the device might be powered. Since most office chairs are on wheels, running a power chord to the chair seems inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst—there would be a good chance the chord would become tangled or caught in one of the chair’s wheels. If the device were battery-operated, then what type of battery would be capable of providing enough power to generate the kind of heat this chair would require to discomfort the user? Would this battery be expensive? Heavy? Is it safe to connect a heat-producing device to a large battery? These design concerns would also need to be addressed before moving forward.
For the rising work station, concerns about the cost of implementation seem most pressing. There are already myriad desks designed to move around according to the user’s position—some are even counter-balanced in order to allow for easy movement. Installing a device that controlled the desk’s movement would probably not be as costly as the desk itself.
Alternative Designs
Colleagues who have responded to this project have made several suggestions for possible alternative designs that might merit further consideration. One person suggested administering a slight shock to the chair’s user to prompt him or her out of the seat. This suggestion might not merit as much consideration as others. A second suggestion was that the chair be designed so that instead of actuating with heat, it would slowly recline, forcing the user to either lie back in the chair and be disengaged from the computer, or else leave the chair and return when the chair had finished its reclining cycle. This design would accomplish some of the same things that the Hot Seat would, but might avoid some of the concerns about the risk of heating.
Acknowledgements
I thank the TUI class and instructors for all their support and feedback. Special thanks to Dave Nguyen for his friendliness and indispensible advice throughout this project.
References
[1]See, for example:
[2]Ergo-Touch Solutions, “Ergo Stretch”
[3]Oxford Journals, Human Reproduction:
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