Design of an ergonomic workstation

As a requirement for graduate course MEEN 601 - Advanced product design, my team of six designed an ergonomic workstation that reduces the effects of Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs).

We followed complete process of product design:

Market Research to identify customer requirements
Defining a problem statement
Development of a functional model
Concept Development
Embodiment Design
Benchmark

Software Used: SolidWorks, Procreate, MATLAB, and MS Office.

**I was responsible for end-to-end design of the chair.

MOTIVATION:

A sedentary lifestyle seems to be a problem that is very likely to affect an average human being across the board irrespective of where they work, how they do it or what they work on. Our main objective was to create a fully integrated work space for a variety of uses and environments that could help alleviate human fatigue and potential long term harm by optimizing the physical space and how it is used.

MARKET RESEARCH:

To understand problems faced by potential customers, their needs and expectations from an ideal workstation we surveyed a sample set of over 50 people in the office going age group (18 to 60 years)

FUNCTIONAL MODEL:

As a pictorial depiction of what our product would look like or what functions it would need to perform so that it meets customer needs, we designed a functional model for the whole workstation and also for all major components such as Desk, Chair, Mouse and Keyboard.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:

Based on the identified requirements and the functional model, we developed morphological matrices for various concepts for the main functions and parts of the major components. Based on the morphological matrix we developed concept designs. One such concept for the chair is shown below:

EMBODIMENT DESIGN:

Considering first principles of engineering and mechanics, designs were detailed out.

Designed Chair

Designed Desk

Designed Mouse

FEM analysis of mouse bracket

Designed Keyboard

FINAL DESIGN:

The work station as a whole was designed to provide comfort to the user there by reducing risk of WMSDs in following ways: