Ergonomics in Children's Furniture -Emotional Attachment

Abstract

When designing a product, frequently the focus stands on function and utility issues, however searching what kind of features can promote a bigger emotional attachment to objects is an important step for a design project. With the creation of more suitable and sustainable children's furniture as an overall objective, namely a chair that can follow child's growth from 6 months up to 7 years old, we aim to produce an object for children to bond, because affection can be the most important number in this equation. This is a mix of interview-based study with quasi-experimental drawing sessions in order to illustrate children's feelings and expectations towards the Tripp Trapp® chair, which is more than 40 years in the market, designed by Peter Opsvik and produced by Stokke® - our main case study. It gives us clues to understand what the chair of their dreams would be like and what they feel sitting on an existing chair. We identified problems concerning comfort and communication with this chair, which has very large acceptance between parents worldwide but doesn't seem so appealing to children.

Keywords: Human factors and ergonomics; Product design; Children's furniture; Graphic expression; Affective sustainability.

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1001284