Weightless Chair

For my second design assignment I chose my wife as my target customer and focused on the problem of solving her neck pain, a chronic condition she’s had since we first met.

I defined the problem as: Young/middle-aged female who works from home needs an accessible way to decrease compression on her spine while doing exercises and resting because she has a debilitating neck injury which causes her daily pain and frustration. 

I did research on spinal decompression methods, therapies and back muscle exercises and found that aquatic therapy, where the individual exercises while submerged, gave lasting relief to many patients. The buoyancy that water provides decompresses the spine and allows the patient to build muscle more permanently. Just sitting in the water also helped decompress patients’ spines and also alleviate pain but the most recommended exercise I found was a sweeping “T-shape” movement of the arms. 

I designed a “weightless chair” that is filled with a water and magnesium-salt mixture in order to give the user the feeling that they are “floating” and decrease compression on the spine. They can rest in the chair or use a circular device to do “T-shape” exercises. The exercise device would be filled with water as well and have sleeves that the user puts their arms in so that their arms are also buoyant. 

The chair would allow my wife to exercise or relax while decompressing her spine, potentially providing her with lasting pain relief. I posted some images of my Tinkercard design below.