(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-04-27)
Ryan, Caitlin Olivia
Currently ergonomics is not a term frequently associated with infant and toddler products. Many of these products on the market like highchairs, rockers and bouncers aren’t designed using anthropometric data on infants and toddlers. The project focused on gather anthropometric data from children between 0-36 months of age as well as aggregating historic data and utilize the measurements to design an ergonomic rocker that would transition or “grow” with a child from infant to toddler. This takes into account not only the objective size of the infants and toddlers but also designing for the differing use cases for each the infant and the toddler user. The infant users are still developing much of their muscle tone and require a rocker to support their feet in long sitting in a semi-reclined position. While toddlers require a rocker that facilitates upright short sitting as well as independent ingress and egress to accommodate their high activity levels. These disparate needs are not currently being met by similar products on the market leading to a shorted life cycle of the product. Anthropometric data was collected on 55 children and used in tandem with knowledge gained from parent surveys, parent interviews and interacting with children to design a new rocker. The prototype was evaluated by both parents and children to make necessary improvements to the design. The final prototype utilized all the information gathered throughout the entire project resulting in an ergonomic adjustable infant -to-toddler rocker.