I have been using the same Staples special office task chair for the last 8 years, yes 8 years.  It has served me very well but the cloth was starting to wear out heavily on the seat and it was time to get something new.

I considered many options as my analytical mind does and contemplated long and hard.  The decision was influenced from many factors including:

• Cost - I am, let's say..frugal and I didn't want to spend too much.  I learned from looking at the chairs that cost was so subjective and it was not easy to make good comparisons.  There really were three general categories of chairs.
  • $50-$200 - These were mainly sold at Staples and this is the category I picked last time.  They seem mostly very consumer-oriented and sold simply based on cost.  I had one of these at one of my jobs and it did not last.
  • $200-$400 - This category was the hardest to really determine the value of the chair, most were names I had not heard of and was hard to distinguish between the low-end and these.  The only real difference I could see was the price.
  • $400-$1200 - This is the chair for someone really trying to find a long-lasting and good chair.  This is where Herman-Miller, Steelcase, Humanscale and others fall into.
• Comfort - I tried out a lot of chairs and the low-end today felt very low-end.  The others had so many adjustments it was hard not to find a comfort zone.
• Durability - I really wanted a chair which will last a long time and not be falling apart 6 months from now.
• Brand - Brand is often an important factor, beyond recognition, brand is a great way to pick a chair on reputation alone.
• Psychological Benefits - If I buy a great chair I will write better code and more interesting articles, right?
• Adjustability - This goes in line with comfort but is important to have adjustable everything, arms, back, height, etc.

I spent about 4 weeks on and off trying to determine the best path to go down.  In the end, it came down to getting what you pay for, so I had to bump my budget up a bit.

I am not an office chair expert and frankly, I don't want to be.  My new chair is the Herman Miller Aeron purchased from Sit4less.com, they had great customer service and great prices, free shipping and a month to use the chair and decide if it's right for me.