Topic 1.1 - Anthropometrics

• Anthropometrics means "measurement of people".
• It is the branch of ergonomics that deals with body shape and size.
• Anthropometrics involves the collection, analysis and application of anthropometric data -- size, shape and strength of the human body, including, mass, volumes, mobility, proportions, centers of gravity, and inertial properties of the whole body and body segments.

Static (Structural) Data

• Human body measurements when the subject is still.
• Measurements of the length between points on a body, such as height, arm length, distance between ground and fingertips, and shoulder width.
• The measurements when the body is in a fixed (static) position, such as joint to joint, skin and bulk.
• Data is collected using standardized equipment such as callipers, stadiometer or anthropometer
• Design contexts include chair height/width, door height/width, and the height and sizes of handles.

Dynamic (Functional) Data

• Human body measurements taken when the subject is in motion
• Measurements of the reach, movement, or strength of various parts of the body help the designer determine how a person moves in a space. Examples can include:
  • How far a person can reach to pull a lever from a seated position
  • How much space is required to turn a wheelchair around
  • How much force is needed to open a lid, turn a wheel, or press a pedal.

Primary Data

• Data about the specific target audience that is gathered first hand by the designer.
• This data can also be considered survey data and tends to consist of a relatively small number of samples.

Secondary Data

• Typically comes from data sets that are produced by government agencies or research groups and have a relatively large sample size.

Percentiles

• In statistics, it is the number where a certain percentage of scores fall below that number.