Abstract
Keywords- Comfort, Emotion, Seating, Ergonomics, Interior design
Abstract - It is not always easy to find out exactly what passengers define as being comfortable and emotionally satisfactory. Several experts have their opinion on comfort and emotion, but its the question whether the end-users (drivers and passengers) will have the same thoughts. In fact the end-user is the only one that can evaluate and judge the comfort and emotional values of an car interior. After more than 10 years of research TNO and the Delft University of Technology have finally developed methods to study the end-user opinion more objectively, allowing the results to be used to create more effective seats, better interior design and good marketing. Overall, the aim should be to develop products that are comfortable and emotionally satisfying.
Measuring discomfort and emotion
Several methods are now available to study comfort and emotion. Some are more objective methods (e.g. pressure distribution measurement systems)and some are more subjective (e.g. questionnaires). The following two methods have proven particularly useful in studying comfort and emotion. Discomfort: A proven particular useful scientific method is the Local Perceived Discomfort method, (LPD). Subjects (end-users) are trained to feel their discomfort and rate it on a scale from 0-10 per body part. The results give the researcher a clear picture where discomfort is localised and where he can change the design in order to eliminate the discomfort. Emotion: Emotional design is very important. Manufacturers of products and machines anticipate this trend, which was also shown in a conference affective human factors design. The Delft University of Technology has therefore developed a more simple method using emo-cards. This system uses 16 cards showing faces with varying emotions. A test subject is asked to choose the card that best fits his or her emotion. With this method various designs can be evaluated to check if they are emotionally appealing.
Case study
Above mentioned comfort and emotion studies were recently used to improve seats. TNO invited end-users to participate in the design of seats for a new commuter train scheduled to run in the New York area. The end results of the project showed that 83% of the subjects preferred the new developed seat for the regular 1 to 2 hours of commuting. The seat scored better on features like resting and sleeping, leg stretching and ingress-egress. All together the methods and the American commuter helped to build a very comfortable seat scoring a significantly higher mark for overall comfort compared to the existing seat.