Study On Growable Tables And Chairs Design For Preschool Children

The service life of tables and chairs for preschool children is only 2-3 years.Most tables and chairs on the market only stay in the innovation of appearance.Many preschool children’s desks and chairs will be idle after children go to primary school,which not only takes up living space,but also causes a great waste of money and resources.In order to prolong the service life of preschool children’s tables and chairs,this dissertation studies the user requirements of children’s tables and chairs and applies the research results to the development and design of growable tables and chairs.Firstly,the market research on children’s tables and chairs was carried out to understand their adjustment methods,materials and functions.The existing problems in the design of tables and chairs were summarized.After that,through the theory and method of ergonomics,the main functional dimensions of growable tables and chairs were determined,and then obtained the reference range of dimension design of growable tables and chairs.After the quantitative processing of the shape and color of table and chair,the experimental samples were obtained.The preference experiments of table and chair shapes and colors were carried out for children of different ages to analyze the preference differences of children of different ages and genders.After obtaining the user needs through the interview,the positive and negative questionnaire design of user needs was carried out by Kano model to complete the screening and ranking of user requirements.Combined with the problems existing in the tables and chairs and the use requirements,the scheme of tables and chairs that can grow was designed.The analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method were used to evaluate the scheme,and the scheme with the highest comprehensive score was selected for further improvement,refinement and structural design.The main research results are as follows:(1)The market research of children’s tables and chairs has showed that there were some problems in the growth design of preschool children’s tables and chairs in China,such as weak research and development,single solution,lack of in-depth research on ergonomics and excessive reliance on solid wood materials.(2)The design parameters of seven main functional dimensions,including the height of the seat surface,the depth of the seat surface,the width of the seat surface,the knee space,the height from the upper edge of the backrest to the seat surface,the height from the seat surface to the desktop and the height of the desktop have been determined.(3)In terms of modeling preference,with the growth of age,children no longer like tables and chairs with young shapes,and their preference for simple and practical tables and chairs has improved.Preschool children have a higher liking for tables and chairs containing animal elements,and their liking for tables with painting,storage and decoration functions will increase significantly.Children after school age have a higher liking for steel adjustable tables and chairs and cabinet rack storage tables and chairs.(4)In terms of color preference,boys always prefer cold colors,and girls change from loving warm colors to loving cold colors.With the growth of age,boys and girls both have a lower preference for red chairs and an increased preference for colorless chairs.According to children’s choice of color,the preferred color numbers of children of different ages and genders has been determined.(5)After dividing and screening the user needs according to the Kano model demand type evaluation table,it has been obtained that essential requirements include environmental protection of materials,stable structure,flexible use space and adjustable height;Expected attributes include reasonable storage space,easy assembly and adjustment,easy cleaning and care,simplicity and non fancy,and surface comfort;Charismatic attributes include entertainment interest,parent-child interaction,preventing objects from falling and conforming to children’s interests.(6)Based on the defects of the existing products and the analysis of users’ requirements for growth tables and chairs,three children’s growable table and chair schemes has been designed.The size of tables and chairs could meet the use needs of children of all shapes.(7)According to the evaluation results of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method,it has been obtained that scheme 1 could be improved from three aspects: easy cleaning,easy assembly and adjustment and easy storage and sorting;Scheme 2 should continue to be optimized from sustainable growth,multi-function and modular ordering.The safety and ease of use of scheme 3 were good,and the evaluation results of the other three indicators were pretty good,which should be continuously optimized from the aspects of material safety,structural safety and modeling safety,and the ease of use should be continuously optimized from the aspects of easy cleaning,easy assembly and adjustment,and easy storage and sorting.(8)After improving the design of several projects with low scores in scheme 3,the final design scheme has been determined.Further refined the scheme and structure design and completed the development and design process.