Anthropometric mismatch between furniture height and anthropometric measurement: A case study of Korean primary schools

This study analyzed the anthropometric mismatch between the height systems of the primary school furniture and children in Korea. The results revealed that the height systems of present desks matched the height of only half of the children. The cause of this was a drawer attached underneath the desk board. In case of the height system of present chairs, almost all children matched; however, some levels were of no use to the students. To increase the degree of matching, new height systems were developed for the desks and chairs via an algorithmic approach. It was confirmed that the new height system for desks could significantly increase the degree of matching, whereas the new height system for chairs comprised five levels that could be matched to all children. The proposed algorithmic approach is expected to be applied to the development of size systems for other products.