The Ergonomics Open Journal

2009, 2 : 1-12
Published online 2009 January 15. DOI: 10.2174/1875934300902010001
Publisher ID: TOERGJ-2-1

User Experience of Office Chairs and Anthropometrics of Female Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese Office and Factory Workers

Miriam E.F.R. Reitenbach , Anne J. Jochems , Johan F.M. Molenbroek , Roger Ball and Daan J. van Eijk
Department of Applied Ergonomics and Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Landbergstraat 15, 2628 CE Delft, The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT

In Hong Kong it was noticed that female office and factory workers use chairs that are oversized and can’t support their sitting posture in a comfortable way.

In order to set up general recommendations to design a more appropriate office chair, a research of the user experience of office chairs was conducted by means of interviews, questionnaires and focus groups.

Additionally, an anthropometric study was carried out on the seated body dimensions of 145 female Hong Kong office workers and 80 female Chinese factory workers.

Especially for the Hong Kong population a positive secular growth of body height in comparison to former studies of the same population was found. Referring to body proportions it was noticed that the upper body (the sitting height and shoulder height) of the measured women was on average relatively longer, whereas the legs were significantly shorter than those of Western female.

Keywords:

Anthropometrics, office chair, Hong Kong.