The following was a group project developed for Recaro, the third largest manufacturer of aircraft seats. The aim was to design a lightweight and comfortable seat bottom for an economy-class aircraft seat, and the desired outcome was to build a working prototype to validate its comfort and weight.
During this period I was taking care of the project management. Regarding my role within the team, my main contributions were related to the ergonomics research on comfort, the product experience analysis and evaluation, and material testing.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The project involved different domains that had to be integrated into the final design, including ergonomics, sustainability, product experience and technology.
I was responsible of the project planning, keeping track of the design process and having an overview of the tasks and deadlines to make sure all objectives were met. While being an active member of the team, having my own role within the project and working on different tasks, I was also coordinating the work of the team members and the project logistics. In addition, I was leading meetings and communication with the different stakeholders.
ERGONOMICS RESEARCH
Comfort is the one of the three pillars for aircraft seat design, together with lightweight and price, since it will directly influence the flying experience of the passenger. Two types of comfort can be differentiated, physical and visual comfort.
On the physical ergonomics level, a research was carried out at the Aircraft Interior Expo in Hamburg, where different concepts of aircraft seat cushions were tested on physical comfort and discomfort with 50 participants.
Physical comfort can be determined by the form of the product contacting the body, the softness of the material, the contact area between
the human and the product and the sensitivity of the body (Vink & Lips, 2016).
To have a better understanding of how people perceive comfort, a questionnaire was conducted on the people's vision on comfort, which would correspond to the cognitive ergonomics. The outcomes consisted on design drivers for the final solution and a moodboard.
Visual comfort has a high influence in the overall comfort perceived by the user, aesthetics influence
up to the first 40 minutes of the product use (Vink, 2014).
PRODUCT EXPERIENCE
The design of an aircraft seat influences the passengers’ travel experience, since it is the product with which they have the most interaction throughout the flight. Therefore, it is very important that the experience that wants to be evoked through the seat is properly defined.
An analysis of the product experience on the aesthetics, meaning and emotions level was carried out, following the 9 moments of product experience (9MoPE) matrix developed by Elif Özcan. The vision formulated for the experience that the new seat bottom design should
support is to provide a carefree flight journey.
Below, the images show the analysis of the product experience on the current company’s seat (left) and the desired experience for the new design (right). Click to enlarge images.
This analysis allowed to define some design guidelines for the embodiment of the desired experiences and its application in the final design. Five new seat bottoms were designed according to these outcomes and evaluated against the current design from the company. The visual attractiveness of the seat and its unity together with the backrest was checked. Seat number two was selected to evoke the best relaxing experience, thus chosen for the final product development.
MATERIAL TESTING
The material selected for the final design was critical for several reasons: its weight, durability, properties to comply with aircraft regulations and, most important for the passenger experience, the comfort it provided.
A test was carried out with two different lightweight materials. To determine which one was more comfortable the pressure distribution of different participants sitting on the cushions was recorded with a pressure mat. Three configurations for each material were tested, in order to define the best pattern for the cushion densities. The objective data of the pressure mat was compared with a subjective evaluation of the participants through a questionnaire.
The material that offered a pressure distribution closer to the ideal distribution for comfort was selected, which matched the configuration chosen as most comfortable by the participants themselves.
The final solution achieved a weight reduction of 235g, which multiplied by all the seats on a plane represents a high saving in fuel consumption. The new design was objectively and subjectively evaluated as more comfortable than the company’s existing seat.
