Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design:

A Case of a Tabloid Chair Design

R. M. Shah, M. A. U. Bhuiyan, R. Debnath, M. Iqbal
and A. Shamsuzzoha

Abstract Ergonomics is a science that is focused on the study of human fit, and
decreased fatigue and discomfort through product design. This science is extensively
applied to various furniture designs in home and office taken into consideration how
the furniture is designed to fit to its users. This research work concentrates to
problems faced by students at Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology,
Sylhet, Bangladesh, who are using tabloid chair in their day to day classroom
environment. The objective of this research is to identify ergonomics viewpoints by
using tabloid chair for sitting in classroom environment and its associated limitations
or problems. To find out the limitations or constraints in using the tabloid chair, a
survey on 160 university students were carried out by using the chair for sitting
position in the classroom more than 1 h per day and accompanying body discomfort
was critically investigated. The outcomes from this survey showed that body discomforts are found at elbow, back, neck, and thigh of 46, 41, 31, 33 students
respectively. Based on the anthropometric data taken from those 160 students, an
updated tabloid chair was designed and developed and presented in this paper. The
tabloid chair as fabricated considering the proposed ergonomics design was also
validated with respect to its materials and overhead costs.

1 Introduction
The concept of ergonomics is to bring comfort and wellbeing to human. With this
view, this research concerns to analyze commonly used chair for sitting in elsewhere, especially to classroom environment. One could imagine that there are as
R. M. Shah (&)
M. A. U. Bhuiyan
R. Debnath
M. Iqbal
Department of IPE, Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh
A. Shamsuzzoha
Department of Production, University of Vaasa, Vaasa 65101, Finland

A. Azevedo (ed.), Advances in Sustainable and Competitive Manufacturing Systems,

Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00557-7_8,
Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013

91

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R. M. Shah et al.

many different types of chairs available as there are people of different heights and
weights. The chair is an object that is usable and available to most of everyone. In
its different embodiments, a chair can be humble or regal and made of traditional
wood or high-tech polymers, simple in concept or highly charged with meaning.
Fundamentally, the requirements for a chair are few. It is essentially a horizontal
surface at a logical height from the ground meaning to support the human body
while sitting position. A vertical surface of a chair is provided for back support. It
can have arms or be armless. While these are the basic elements, a chair is more
than the sum of its component parts.
The psychological relationship with the user and a chair is perhaps stronger
than with any other types of household furniture. Basic form of a chair is comprised of three factors: functional, aesthetics, and material. Among all other
general types of chairs, tablet arm chair is widely used in educational institutions
and business organizations due to its less space consumption in comparison to its
functionality. Usually, a user sit on a chair for long time that causes fatigue or fill
uncomfortable when the chair is not designed ergonomically. With the view to
achieve better performance, a chair should be designed as perfectly as possible
following the general ergonomics principles. The resultant chair will provide to the
user better comfort in total.
The study focuses the users of tabloid chair who are the university students of
Bangladesh. The aim of this study is to find out the problems faced by the user and
their recommendation which will help in designing a new tabloid chair. In this
research, an ergonomically tabloid chair was designed and fabricated with the
objective to bring comfort enough for the human being, especially for classroom
environment. This proposed chair was also tested using various anthropometric
data from 160 students at the Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology,
Bangladesh. The outcomes from the test are presented in the results and analysis
section, where the tests findings are elaborated extensively.

2 Literature Review
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the
understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and
the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order
to optimize human well-being and overall system performance [13]. This discipline is described as an innovation and safety factor for the execution of design
projects of new products. Within the context of a design project, ergonomics study
describes and analyzes each phase of the design process from a design model
based on concurrent engineering [4]. Peck [5] did a research on the benefits of
ergonomically designed chairs in the shop floor environment, where he focused on
measuring the changes in productivity related to ergonomic improvements.
Another research work was done by Azad and Reza (2004), where they presented
an up-to-date design of an ergonomic chair for a VDT Workstation at the

Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design

93

Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Shah Jalal University of

Science and Technology.
Several design efforts were carried out for school furniture (e.g., chair and
table) by different researchers in order to improve their overall comfort ability
after strictly following the ergonomics principles. For instance, Aagaard, and
Storr-Paulsen [6] proposed a better seat design of a school chair and its accompanied table-top that was initially fabricated after following ISO standards. Agha
[7] considered the anthropometry to the dimensions of school furniture and
determining whether the furniture used matches the students anthropometry. This
study measured 600 male several students body dimensions including elbow-seat
height, shoulder height, knee height, popliteal height, and buttock-popliteal length
with the objective to find the mismatch between the students body dimensions and
the classroom furniture. It appears that the mismatches in seat height, seat depth,
and desk height occurred for 99 % of the students, while the mismatch for the back
rest height was only 35 %. Domljan et al. [8] recommended adjustable chairs to be
introduced in Croatian schools after studying 556 pupils from three primary
schools in Zabreb, Croatia, and two types of chairs.

3 Research Methodology
In order to accomplish the research goal, a survey was conducted on 160 users of
different tabloid chairs at Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology,
Bangladesh. The majority of the population was male. The majority of the population weight ranged from 55 to 70 kg. Majority of the population age ranged
from 20 to 23 years. The data has been gathered through questionnaires. Each of
the questions is taken from an individual user after the user spent minimum 1 h
sitting on tabloid chair. The questionnaires were consisted of two parts: one to find
out the problems faced by the users and the other for identification of the users
recommendations. Finally all data has been analyzed by using various types of
tables and graphs.
This study was conducted following five major steps:
Firstly, a survey plan was set up to conduct the study at the campus of Shah
Jalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. Within this
survey plan 160 students with different body fit in terms of height, weight, duration
of sitting in the classroom environment were considered.
Secondly, a set of questionnaires were prepared and distributed to the 160 students
to support this ergonomic problem survey. These questionnaires were consists of
different anthropometric measures such as comfort level, fatigue problem, duration
of sitting, etc., with the tabloid chair used in the classroom environment.
Thirdly, the responses or data from this survey was collected and analyzed with
the objective to identify and prioritize the problems as needed to prepare the
improvement plan of the general tabloid chair following recommended ergonomics guideline.

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R. M. Shah et al.

Fourthly, the necessary anthropometric dimensions of the surveyed population

are obtained or approximated from the result of the available anthropometric
surveys reasonably represent the user group.
And finally, design and develop proposed new tabloid arm chair complying
with the collected anthropometric data from the conducted survey.

4 Results and Analysis

The outcomes from the study survey were collected and analyzed with respect to
their importance and suitability to design and fabricate the proposed new tabloid
chair. The results were also categorized based on their corresponding anthropometric values, measures, and explanations which are presented in the following
sub-sections.

4.1 Determination of Average Time Spent on a Tabloid

Chair by a User
Various types of pain faced by a user of a tabloid chair must be dependent on the
time duration usually s/he spent to sit on the chair. The average time spent by the
individual user was presented in Table 1. From Table 1, it is seen that out of 110
users 31 users spent 1 h, 36 users spent 2 h, 49 users spent 3 h, and 34 28 users
spent 4 h.
By using the data from Table 1, a pie chart was also developed as presented as
in Fig. 1, which shows that 21 percent of the user sits 1 h, 24 % sits 2 h, 32 % sits
3 h, and 23 % sits 4 h.
Table 1 Average time spent
by the users on tabloid chair

Fig. 1 Average time spent

on a tabloid chair by the users

Duration

1h

2h

3h

4h

Number of user

31

36

49

34

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95

4.2 Assessment for Frequency of Pain Felt by Users

The frequency of pain felt by the users depends on some factors such as sitting
duration, condition of the seat and some other minor factors. These survey assess
the pain felt by the users while they were sitting on the chair. After processing of
the data it is seen that 22 users never felt any pain, 111 users sometimes felt pain,
and 17 users always felt pain. Table 2 displays the frequency of pain felt by the
users.

4.3 Assessment of the Condition of Existing Seat Pan

One of the major causes behind the pain felt by a chair user is the condition of the
seat pan. For a poorly designed seat, the user can feel pain on thigh and posture. To
assess the present condition of the seat, five categories were selected such as very
bad, bad, fair, good, and excellent. Different ratings of the tabloid chair users are
based on the condition of existing seat pan are shown in Table 3.

4.4 Assessment of Comfort Ability of the Existing Chair

To find out the comfort ability of the existing chair, a scale of 15 was selected,
which allow the users to rate the chairs they are using. The assessment shows that
majority of the chairs comfort ability is average. From Table 4, it is clearly seen
that a large number of user rate their chairs 3. 22 users felt very low comfort of
rating 1, 34 users rated 2, and 8 users rated 3.
Table 2 Frequency of pain
felt by users

Frequency

Never

Sometime

Always

Number of user
Percentage

22
16

111
27

17
11

Table 3 Condition of
existing seat pan

Condition

Very bad

Bad

Fair

Good

Excellent

Number of user
Percentage

10
7

36
24

68
54

34
23

2
1

Table 4 Comfort ability of

the existing chair

Rating

Number of user

22

34

83

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R. M. Shah et al.

4.5 Assessment of Tab Height of the Existing Chair

Tab height is a vital factor in a tabloid chair. Inappropriate tab height causes
elbow, shoulder, and neck pain. Inappropriate tab height refers both the tab which
is above and lowers comparing to elbow rest height. Table 5 shows that tab height
is appropriate for 51 users (out of 108) and 57 users feel that the tab height is not
appropriate for them.

4.6 Assessment of Pain on Hand While Writing

The frequency of pain felt on hand by the users while writing depends on the
factors such as tab height and tab size. Improper tab height is responsible for
shoulder and neck pain. Elbow and wrist pain causes due to improper tab size.
Table 6 presents the assessment of pain on hand while writing. From Table 6 it is
noticed that 21 users do not feel any problem which means that tab height is
appropriate for them, 111 users sometimes feel pain that mean if they were sitting
for a long time which causes pain and if the duration is shorter they do not feel
pain, 18 users always feel pain on hand while writing. In percentage, it can be
explained that 14, 74, and 12 % of the users never, sometime, and always felt pain
on hand respectively while writing.

4.7 Assessment of Health Problem Faced by the Users

Various types of health problems faced by the users of tabloid chair are presented
in Table 7. From Table 7, it is seen that majority of the user feels elbow pain (46),
back pain (41), posture pain (35), thigh pain (33), and neck pain (31). Because of
existing tabloid chairs tab height, back rest angle, and seat pan inappropriate for
those users. So there is a lot of scope to improve the condition of the existing
tabloid chair.

Table 5 Suitability of tab

height

Tab height

Appropriate

Inappropriate

Number of user

51

57

Table 6 Pain felt by the user

while writing

Frequency

Never

Sometime

Always

Number of user
Percentage

21
14

111
74

18
12

Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design

Table 7 Various types of
problems and their causes

97

Problems

Number
Causes
of population

Shoulder pain
Neck pain

9
31

Improper tab height

Improper tab height,
back rest angle
Improper tab height and size
Improper tab height and size
Improper back rest angle
Improper back rest angle
and seat depth
Poor condition of seat pan
Improper seat height and depth
Improper seat height

Elbow pain
46
Wrist pain
7
Back pain
41
Lower back pain 8
Posture pain
Thigh pain
Knee pain

35
33
12

4.8 Preferable Chair for Classroom Environment

The study tries to find out which kind of chair preferred by the user for classroom
environment and the results are presented in Table 8. From Table 8 it is seen that
majority of the users prefer armless chair with foam (40 %). Preference for tabloid
arm chair is 29 %, while armless wooden chair is preferable to 15 and 15 % for
arm chair.

4.9 Preference of Tablet Arm Chair for Classroom Purpose

Nowadays tabloid chair is common in the classroom environment because it
consumes less space in comparison to other combination of chair and desk. To find
out the users preference of tabloid chair for classroom environment, a scale of 15
was developed and the outcomes are presented in Table 9. From Table 9, it is
observed that maximum 57 users marked 3, maximum 32 users marked 4, 30 users
Table 8 Preferable chair for classroom purpose
Types of chair Tablet arm
Armless wooden
chair
chair
Number of
users
Percentage

Arm
chair

Stool Armless chair with

foam

43

23

22

61

29

15

15

40

Table 9 Preference of tabloid chair

Rating
1

Number of users
Percentage

30
20

57
38

32
21

5
4

26
17

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R. M. Shah et al.

Table 10 User requirement

Feature

Total population

Yes (%)

No (%)

Seat height Adjustability

Tab height Adjustability
Space for bag/file

110
110
110

83
89
98

17
11
2

marked 2, 26 users marked 1, and 5 users marked 5, which in percentages are 38,
21, 20, 17, and 4 % respectively.

4.10 Assessment of the User Requirement

Table 10 below shows the users requirements in terms of seat height adjustability,
tab height adjustability, and space for bag/file.

5 Design and Fabrication

After analyzing the survey outcomes of various health problems faced by the users
of tabloid chairs, it was seen that nobody felt comfort except a small portion of the
population, which means that there is an opportunities to improve the comfort
ability of the tabloid chair. It was also noticed from the previous section that 70 %
of the users sometimes and 12 % of the users always felt different types of pains
such as pains on back, elbow, neck, and posture. The reason behind this is the
improper match between the user and the tabloid chair, which was not designed
following the ergonomics principles. This section presents the design procedure of
a tabloid chair following the ergonomics guidelines.
In order to design anything according to ergonomic principles requires the
anthropometric data base, which should be taken from such population for which
the design is being developed. Here the design is being developed for the student
of Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Shah Jalal University of
Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh. Anthropometric data of 160 students
were collected and processed for designing a new tabloid chair. The design
methodology as taken to fabricate the new tabloid chair can be seen as in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 Method of tabloid chair design

Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design

99

5.1 Anthropometric Data

Anthropometric data was collected from the students of 20072008 sessions to
20102011 sessions and the data was tabulated in Microsoft Excel. A statistical
formula named percentile was used, which returns the k-th percentile of values in a
range. To calculate 95, 50, 5th percentile of various anthropometric measurement,
the values of k = 95, 50, 5 were used. The processed data are presented in
Table 11.

5.2 Design Specification

Various design specifications of the tabloid chair such as seat height, seat depth,
seat width, back rest height, and tab height are presented in Table 12. Different
anthropometric measurements and the values of each of the specifications are also
shown in Table 12.

5.3 Material Selection and Cost

The material selection to fabricate the any kinds of chair depends on its design
feature, aesthetic view, and the overall user requirements. Generally, wood, steel
Table 11 Anthropometric data of 95, 50, and 5th percentile
Minimum Maximum 95th percentile 50th percentile 5th percentile
Popliteal height
Buttock-Knee depth
Buttock popliteal depth
Elbow to elbow breadth
Sitting elbow height
Sitting shoulder height
Hip breadth
Thigh clearance
Stature

37
41
38
38
17
49
28
10
143

51
63
54
56
27
63
40
18
182.88

47
61
50.75
51
25
61
37.75
16
176

44
55
46
45
21
56
33
14
167.22

40.25
49
41
41
18
51
30
12
159.5

Table 12 Anthropometry in terms of chair measurement

Specification
Measurement

Value (cm)

Seat height
Seat depth
Seat width
Back rest height
Tab height

Popliteal height ? shoe allowance 3.81 cm

Buttock popliteal depth-clearance 12.7 cm
Hip breadth 9 cloth allowance 1.3
Sitting shoulder height 9 0.8
Sitting elbow height ? allowance

49
37
43
45
25

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R. M. Shah et al.

(hollow round and square, angle) bars, foam, ply wood, and particle board are used
in the chair manufacturing. Wood is the most common material used in chair
manufacturing. It can be used in every part of the chair and comparatively low in
cost. Metal or steel bar are usually used to make the frame of the chair. Metal has
also good strength and machine ability. Its life time is more than the wood. Foam
is usually used as the seat pan and backrest of the chair that brings comfort to the
user through its soft surface. Ply wood are also used in seat pan, backrest, and tab
of the chair.
In order to bring necessary comfort level and required weight and strength
hollow square steel bar, wood, particle board, and foam were selected to fabricate
the new tabloid chair to be used for the students in the classroom. More specific
reasons behind to select those materials are given.
Hollow Square Steel Bar Square bar was selected for the frame of the chair. It
can be bended to a certain angle which reduces time and machining cost.
Wood To support the foam of seat pan and backrest wood sheet was selected.
Wood is fastened with the steel by means of screw to provide a support for foam.
Particle Board Tab is an important component of a tabloid chair. Tab should be
strong and rigid enough to provide support to hand while writing and also light in
weight. For this purposes particle board was selected for making the tab.
Foam About 53 % users prefer foam as seat pan material. So, in order to
fulfilling majority of the users preferences, foam was selected as the seat pan
material. It is also used as the backrest material too.

5.4 Detailed Design

This section presents the detailed design of the newly designed tabloid arm chair.
Different views such as isometric view, top view, front view, and right hand side
(R.H.S) of the tabloid chair are presented in the following figures. For instance,
Fig. 3 displays the isometric view, Fig. 4 presents the top view, Fig. 5 presents the
front view and Fig. 6 presents the right hand side view of the tabloid chair.

5.5 Bill of Materials and Total Cost

The bill of materials (BOM) and the total cost to fabricate the proposed tabloid
chair is presented in Table 13. From Table 13 it is seen that the total cost including
the materials, labor, and overhead is 1820 Bangladesh Taka which is equivalent to
USD 25.00. The cost looks pretty cheap in comparison to the available tabloid
chair in the market which is between USD 40.00 to USD 100.00 in general.
Manufacturability of this new chair is also less time consuming and operators
friendly.

Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design

Fig. 3 Isometric view of the
proposed tablet arm chair

Fig. 4 Top view of the

proposed tabloid arm chair

Fig. 5 Front view of the

proposed tabloid arm chair

101

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R. M. Shah et al.

Fig. 6 Right hand side view

of the proposed tabloid arm
chair

Table 13 Bill of materials

No

Items

Quantity

Round
pipe
Wood
Net
Rexene
Foam
Particle
board
Cap
Labor cost
Overhead cost

20 ft

480.00

3.1 ft2
1.723 ft2
4.5 ft2
30 g
1.62 ft2

160.00
200.00
210.00
30.00
120.00

10 piece

20.00
500.00
100.00

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Total cost

Cost
(Bangladesh Taka)

1,820.00

6 Conclusion
The use of the tabloid chair in classroom is increasing day by day due to its
usability and consumes less space. Without proper design of a chair, sitting will
require greater muscular force and control to maintain the stability and equilibrium
in general. These requirements are in turn results in greater fatigue and discomfort
and are likely to lead to poor postural habits as well as neck or back complaints.
The most common problem faced by the users of the tabloid chair is elbow pain.
The survey conducted in this research study finds out that out of 160 users of the
tabloid chair 138 users did face pain on hand while writing, and only 22 users did
not. Among these 138 users 46 users also specified that they were faced elbow
pain. Second most common pain faced by the users was back pain. The survey
reveals that 41 users out of 160 users felt back pain. Due to the lack of proper

Ergonomics Issues in Furniture Design

103

knowledge about ergonomics principles, many users did not specify where they
felt pain.
In this research work, the authors have tried to design a tabloid chair, which will
give more advantages to the students. This paper addresses a better approach to
design and fabricate a tabloid chair, which will provide support to the body to
eliminate unexpected or unhealthy stress. This research also analyzed the suitability of different materials to be used to fabricate the chair and accompanying
cost is also presented. The cost calculation shows that the proposed new chair has
the enhanced manufacturability and cheaper in cost in comparison to the available
chairs in the market, although research is needed to calculate the cost based on its
effective life. There are several limitations or constraints in this research such as;
(1) smaller sample size that may not be enough to generalize the design of the
tabloid chair for class room environment, (2) waste of the materials used to fabricate the chair and whether the materials are recyclable are not considered
extensively, (3) proposed design is not analyzed virtually by any suitable software,
(4) sustainability of the chair design is not considered with respect to generic
norms and conditions, etc. All such limitations or constraints can be overcome
through future research and at the same time a deciding attribute style and
appearance can also be considered as the future research direction too.

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