Author: Muhammad Yousuf

Industrial Designer, Design Consultant @ Yousuf Design Consultancy

The design of seating can’t be separated from the ergonomics and human factors as the seating are to serve the human body. It has been an interesting design assignment in the design colleges and a challenging job for professional designers to design a better seating that can stand among the uncountable seating designs which have been made by previous master designers around the world.

The study of the human body is an important factor in designing better seating. The study includes anthropometry, biomechanics by using naked eye observation to the advanced scientific gadgets. In this advanced age, many high tech research tools are easily available to gather data and assist research regarding human anthropology and biomechanics for analysing different human factors and adjusting the parameters in the design for example seating curves affect the corresponding body region in contact with a seated person. By adjusting the curves carefully with the help of research data by scientific gadgets like with the help of pressure sensors connected with a live presentation of forces on screen, a designer can decide where the parameters require a change in shape and impact the whole seating experience.

The whole purpose of doing in-depth research with qualitative and quantitative methods while designing a seating is to understand the human body requirements better and to serve them better with a better seating design.     

There are two approaches to design.

(a) Design concept to material: In which a design concept is established first by going through the research and development phase. Then the materials are selected that can materialize the design concept in a way that materials flow the essence of the design. The whole manufacturing process revolves around the design concept. A lot of effort is put into engineer such materials that can stabilize the design. Similarly, manufacturing technology is also adopted accordingly as per the design concept.

(b) Material to design

In this approach, the designer uses the available materials and manufacturing technologies as a base in the design development and utilizes hindered and thousands of experiments and scientific data of the materials while adjusting the design. This approach brings results quickly but has limits. This approach is practised generally and adopted for need-based projects.