Adapting 120
Comfort-focused ergonomic chair design for public transportation
People spend one-third of their life sitting. Traveling on transportation, working in one sitting, or having a meal, sitting in many different places has made it possible to distinguish more comfortable sitting among other furniture. The idea started by analyzing people's positions in the same chair structure and what aspect do people find relaxation in a chair.
Through observing people sitting on standardized public chairs showed a result where one’s posture greatly resembles another. Realizing one’s sitting form is a response to the specific structure of the chair, I conducted a guerrilla research to a wide range of people.
About
Problem
My ultimate goal was to find How do people define and what makes a comfortable chair?
I followed the systematic procedure below to conduct the research and drew the following conclusion.
User Research
Process
Initially, a guerrilla research was conducted from a group of random participants for a fast and low-cost user interview.
(Location: 14, Teheran-ro 64-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06192, South Korea/ Age range: 20-40/ Total participants: 30 people)
Final Solution
Analysis
Prototype
Comfortable chair designed with 120°, Rhinoceros, 2021
Model 1/30, sculpture, 2021
Based on the answers from 30 public participants, I created 30 physical sculptures only relying on the responses.
As question 4 was asked to be depicted only using lines, I chose a toothpick for the most minimal form of module that resembles the line. The 30 sculptures are shown below.
30 Models, sculpture, 2021
In the two different collections of results I received, I was able to find a common feature that the majority of the both results showed 120 degrees in common. From the 30 non professional participants, 7 sketches and from the furniture designer’s output, 8 sculptures contained 120 degrees within its structures. Finally, I stressed the angle by applying it to a minimal form of chair.