Getting data into shape

Designing for the human body means understanding the dimensions and the size and shape of people. But without accurate or available data, designers can struggle to create something that accommodates different physical characteristics and delivers the best possible experience.

Gathering anthropometric data is often expensive and time-consuming, however, existing information can be used to estimate details of a target group. A new study involving analysis of reweighting this information has been published that examines some of the different strategies used and their accuracy.

The most accurate method, known as ‘near neighbour’ approach, reduced the average percentage error from 4.03% to 0.28%. The study said: “Anthropometric data are critical to design but severely limited in availability. Most designers will not have access to detailed data collected from their target users. However, users’ anthropometry can be estimated by reweighting available detailed data.”

The paper by Madison Reddie and Matthew Parkinson is published in the journal Ergonomics. Read the full article