"You’re on your iPad, you’re on your computer, you’re not really engaged with the desk anymore."

Personal electronics have infiltrated the professional realm, that much is uncontroversial, but Steelcase's study shows that people have also imported the informal and casual ways of working with technology along with their tablets and phones. The development of the Gesture chair was thus informed by the need to accommodate all the various new contortions that an iPad user might get in to.

"There hadn’t really been a product that addressed the way that people were working," says Small as he details the inadequacy of current designs to meet modern needs. So Steelcase went and did a ton of observational research and came back with a design that emphasized the need for every component to "have some relevance to the way people are working."

The Gesture chair's arms flex out in all directions and do so independently. You can elevate or lower them, tuck them in or push them out, and they even slide back and forth automatically with your arm. It's an intriguing mix of granular adjustability and automated flexibility.

Other affordances made for weirder poses include the seat itself, which is "remarkably wide" in John Small's words and has soft edges all around, allowing you to straddle the chair or sit sideways. Apart from facilitating the above cocoon pose, that enlarged seat also makes the Gesture more suitable for what Steelcase's design director diplomatically describes as users with a larger skeletal frame. The back is designed to cradle you "no matter the posture" and moves in concert with the seat to adjust to your position.

Designed to cradle you "no matter the posture"

Sitting down in the Gesture chair, I don't feel immediately transported into a brave new world of ergonomics. The rather austere fabric and plastic materials don't convey any sense of luxury, either, but the whole point with an ergonomic chair is what it can do for you over the course of hours in a day and years in your lifetime. To judge it on first impressions is equivalent to reviewing a song after hearing only a single note. I like the sliding arm rests that follow your movement, and Steelcase claims the Gesture has the widest angle of recline among chairs of its class, though I can't say that difference is immediately apparent.

It's worth noting that Steelcase isn't the first to take on the changing habits of people at work. Knoll's Generation chair, introduced in 2009, has an elastic frame designed to fit around the non-static act of sitting and similarly acknowledges the changing face of the modern workspace. Still, it's rare to see a company so openly addressing the diminishing distinction between home and office and the way that mobile technology is helping to bring them even closer together.