Development of ergonomic furniture for primary school in Malaysia: industrial design process

Abstract

The implementation of ergonomics improvement is a new concept in Malaysian society. Currently in Malaysia, there has been no record that a school infrastructures such as building, school layout, classroom and the school furniture had been design or promoted on application of ergonomics. This study was done to identify ergonomics risk at school and to develop ergonomics furniture for Malaysia Primary School. However, this paper will focused on the industrial design process of the ergonomics furniture development. Based on the preference outcome, the design group managed to identified 1) the color 2) material 3) design prefer by the childrens and result combined from the outcome revealed from the risk assessment. Using all the important information, several 2D sketches and 3D mockup model were produced and only one final design was selected based on the need of the childrens. The specification of the furniture was finally intergrated with anthropometric data for final design specifation prior to final fabrication of prototype (version 1) and mass production of the furniture for further testing and evaluation.