An overview of 'ergonomic' office chairs by Unplggd. The biggest common denominator of these chairs seems to be the price level, which are about as high as the back support they offer. Wired especially likes the new Herman Miller Embody chair.

Ergonomics versus initial comfort
But are they really ergonomic or just comfortable? A while ago I was at an ergonomics conference where an office furniture supplier was demonstrating its newest ergonomic office chair. The company had noticed that a lot of people did buy an ergonomic chair, but then failed to make the right settings on them. A colleague of mine, specialized in physical ergonomics once remarked: "If a product can be adjusted by users, it often ends up being adjusted the wrong way." To overcome this problem, the company had developed a software program to teach you the right settings. You entered your height, weight, etc, and it showed you the best settings for your chair and how to make them (these chairs usually have more levers than the cockpit of a small airplane). What happened was this: people made the settings, sat down, were surprised about how it felt - which was different than what they were used to - got up and uttered: "This feels weird, its not ergonomic at all." So here the company ran into a problem: what's good for you in the long run may feel weird at first. Even if people are looking for an 'ergonomic' chair, they actually might be assessing them by initial comfort instead of the long term ergonomic qualities.

[Illustration: Unplggd]

UPDATE
Core77 decided not to write a review on the Embody chair based on first impressions, but 'lived' with it for a month and then gave their opinion. How's that for initial comfort versus long-term ergonomics...