Anthropometric Data
A huge and important factor with any design is really understanding who your audience is. It is vital to conduct this type of research because it determines and shapes your products. The next few photographs are taken from a anthropometric book. This will and already has helped to develop my understanding and think more about the person I will be designing for.
The first data concerns weight. My chair needs to be able to hold on average this amount of weight. For males the average weight is recorded at 79.75 kg, and the females average weight is 66.7kg.
I must consider these factors when choosing materials for the chair. It must be able to withstand these weights and it is vital that the chair is safe for every user and extremely durable due to the fact that it will have regular usage.
This data is also quite crucial to make record of when designing my church chair. The chair proportionally must look right if someone is going to sit down on it.
As you can see the average 'sitting height' for a male is 920.2 and a for a female it is 857.6 .
If I decide at a later stage to design the product with arm rests to aid and support comfort then it is important to know the measurements for 'Underside of the elbow'. As a designer you want the user to be able to natural rest their arms and be comfortable.
Male average: 376.7
Female average: 341.5
Male average: 376.7
Female average: 341.5
At this moment in time this particular data is not too relevant because I have not generated any initial ideas, however I have recorded this data because I may design a chair trolley to make it easy for users to transport and stack away the chairs. Despite of this, if I was not to design a trolley to help stack the chairs it is also useful to consider how many chairs can be stacked until the average person is unable to reach it. This can be important when taking into account of space and safety.
As a result of this I must know how high on average can people reach. The data tells me that for a Male the average measurements are 2092.2 and for a Female 1944.3.
As a result of this I must know how high on average can people reach. The data tells me that for a Male the average measurements are 2092.2 and for a Female 1944.3.
Points to consider....
As mentioned this data is very crucial for any design as it allows you to fabricate your product and cater to your demographic. I know that I can refer to this research at a later date but what is vital to consider when designing these chairs is that although these are the average measurements there are other users outside of this area that the product could potentially ignore. A good designer will have the ability to find the right balance and not necessarily be fixed on these averages but in fact find that middle ground, this can insure that you are considering the audiences outside of the averages.