What is Anthropometric Design?
- Anthropometric design uses anthropometric data to make a design that is suitable and comfortable for a specific demographic.
- There are many types of ways anthropometric design is integrated into products.
Types of Anthropometric Design
Range of Sizes
- A selection of sizes a product is made in that caters for the majority of a market.
- Set size; can’t change it, such as clothing and shoes.
Adjustability
- The ability of a product to be changed in size, commonly used to increase the range of percentiles that a product is appropriate for.
- One product; user can adjust the size to their liking, such as office chairs, snapback hats and ladders etc.
Work Envelope
- A fixed 3D space where work activities take place, considering clearance and reach.
- The limits of a work envelope are determined by the functional arm reach of the intended user which, in turn, is influenced by the direction of reach and the nature of the task being performed.
- Most of the things that the user need to use to carry out the tasks should be arranged within this area.
- Workspace envelopes should be designed for the 5th percentile of the user population (smallest user), which means that 95% of users will be able to reach everything placed within the envelope.
Clearance
- The physical space between two objects.
Reach
- A range that a person (or robot) can stretch to touch or grasp an object from a specified position.
Interpretation of Anthropometric Data
- Consider reliability and limitations in the collection of anthropometric data.
- Demonstrate understanding of the types of anthropometric data (what they are, the differences between them, how they can be used within context and how they are measured).
- Interpret percentile tables in order to calculate dimensions related to a product.
- Consider how products can be adaptable for different markets or adjustable to cater for most.
- Consider the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles in particular, and percentile ranges such as 2.5th to 97.5th and 5th to 95th.
- Interpret percentile tables based on different national and international populations, gender and age.
Limitations of the Average
In 1950, researchers at Wright Air Force Base in Ohio measured more than 4,000 pilots on 140 dimensions of size, including thumb length, crotch height, and the distance from a pilot’s eye to his ear, and then calculated the average for each of these dimensions.
Everyone believed this improved calculation of the average pilot would lead to a better-fitting cockpit and reduce the number of crashes — or almost everyone.
Out of 4,063 pilots, not a single airman fit within the average range on all 10 dimensions. One pilot might have a longer-than-average arm length, but a shorter-than-average leg length.
Another pilot might have a big chest but small hips. Even more astonishing, Daniels discovered that if you picked out just three of the ten dimensions of size — say, neck circumference, thigh circumference and wrist circumference — less than 3.5% of pilots would be average sized on all three dimensions.
Daniels’s findings were clear and incontrovertible. There was no such thing as an average pilot. If you’ve designed a cockpit to fit the average pilot, you’ve actually designed it to fit no one.