the worst chair ever

We’ve all sat in a chair that lacked style and comfort. The chair sucks. As a designer and a human, it’s my mission to make sure you never intentionally make your guest/client/customer sit on something that is both ugly and uncomfortable. 

Are waiting rooms an afterthought? Why are there so may awful spaces when there are loads of great options out there? It’s not budget either, you can find just about anything in any price point these days if you do a little research and compare pieces. 

I went to a salon for years and years. Great place, family owned and quite successful. They redesigned it themselves (uh oh) and while the waiting room was fine, the color processing chair was, well, awful. (For those of you blessed with beautiful natural hair color, the processing chair is where you sit for hours and hours while the color gods work their magic.) So you’re there potentially for a long time while your stylist takes a break or squeezes in another haircut. Hours. And this is where I sat in a ‘high end’ salon. Note: I’m average woman-sized. Nowhere near tall and so this chair should be optimal for me. Not even close.

There are about 500 things wrong with this chair. I’ll hit the highlights. 

• There are no arms. You can’t comfortably scroll your phone without arms on a chair. Awkward.
• The molded plastic was sweaty hot. My back was roasting and in combo with the dryer heat it was like being in an oven. I was self conscious that others could see my sweat through the clear plastic.
• It felt tippy. Anytime I leaned back a touch I thought I  was going to flip the chair. My core was exhausted by the end of the sit. Not cool. 
• Butt squish visible. This is a huge peeve of mine and this chair backed up to the main walkway so everyone saw my sweaty back, cape squish through the clear chair. 
• It has zero style. Clear is not a style, its a placeholder. It’s like they tried to take a cafeteria chair and make it edgy. Fail. 
• No tush cush. A chair like this could be ok if the intent is a quick perch. I was there for hours and it was as soft as the floor. 

My goal is after reading this you won’t think of these waiting spaces as an afterthought. Your waiting area should not be stuff from your house you wanted to get rid of. It shouldn’t be uncomfortable, ever. These areas are key in the experience of your customer and while they may not Yelp it, they’re definitely thinking it. When you focus on the full customer experience, these are the details that you really need to think about. You’ve put so much thought into your products, your service, your logo, your branding and image. Your interior should reflect that level of care.