hello all,
Is anyone familiar with a published for source body measurement data besides the “Measure of Man” by Henry Dreyfuss? I’m working on a seating project and have been told that the measurements compiled in this publication are not accurate and outdated.
I am building prototypes for user input but want to be as informed as I can.
any useful input is appreciated
Well you could use the other standard source but the numbers are very similar if not identical. Check amazon or a nearby university engineering library for a series called Humanscale 1-2-3, 4-5-6, and 7-8-9.
I use “measure of man” all the time and find it very usefull as a general guideline. I always play with the numbers for the right balance but I find that they are pretty damn accurate for most office situations. However, depending on the type of seating the heights are going to change a great deal. “measure of man” mostly deals with technical environments like computer workstations and doesn’t have numbers on proper sofa height, lounge chair height, etc. If you are designing a sofa I would honestly check different manufacturers and see what seat heights and depths they are using.
Compile a chart and use it to cross reference the numbers. This will give you a good range to work within and it will be good material for your project to prove you’ve been researching and not just trying to make something look cool.
Also remember that the original source for the “measure of man” and “humanscale” numbers are from the US military which at the time was almost entirely caucasian. These numbers a dead wrong for asian populations, and for other statistically shorter people you will find yourself needing to use numbers from much lower percentiles and possibly even numbers for caucasian children.
there is a program you can get that will tell you dimensions of any aged or gender. if you would like a copy please email me 0333891@student.ul.ie
I heard the old publication is outdated and most of the measurements were based on military, navy and airforce. The newer version is updated, however, there are better books out there. I need to dig up a title but there is a book about seat ergonomics. Give me a day or two I will have the title for you.
The British Department of Trade & Industry funded an updated series of anthropometric data books that were available free of charge until last year (I was amazed to receive such weighty, high quality research documents through the mail just a few days after ordering them online).
The books Adultdata, Older Adultdata and Childdata had figures for North American and Europeans, range of ages and percentiles, loads of measuremetns, from finger length to head diameter.
But they’re no longer available (not sure why). More details: http://www.system-concepts.com/articles/article0058.html
If you can get hold of copies somewhere, they’re certainly a fantastic resource.
I posted many resources in the general board:
In the future, please do not post the same question on multiple boards. The moderators will delete multiples.
moved from students and schools, as it was a design research question
HEY!!! I just found the title for you.
Human Dimension and Interior Space: A Source Book of Design Reference Standards by J. Panero
I’ve gathered some online resources here: