A study on user’s comfort level and seat mismatch in a lecture theatre

ABSTRACT

The furnishings provided by the Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) are not suitable with the diverse student’s body shapes. This could leads to lack of comfort in usage of the furnishings as well as affecting the effectiveness of the delivery of the lectures. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to evaluate the student’s comfort level in the current seat of the Lecture Theatre (LT) and to gather student’s anthropometry data. Two hundred and twenty one students were involved in this study from one of the IHL in Selangor. A few similar design of LT were chosen for this study. The Standard Nordic Questionnaire was used to identify the comfort level of students. Eleven body parts measurements of all participated students were collected by using measurement apparatus such as callipers and ruler. Based on the findings, it showed that the current seat in LT is uncomfortable to be used, in line with the results from surveys and mismatch of the seat and student measurement data.