The straps go under my legs; think of a jock strap. which might be uncomfortable to some, but for me, my binder rolling up was literally painful. So this is better than that.
It doesn't dig into me because the plastic parts are in a good enough place that I'm not actually sitting on them.
And you could probably put them off the side, but I find it works best the closer to the center.
But I don't know, the perfect placement (so you're not sitting on them) might be different for different people.