Designer
Vegetable Shop
Space Design
Human Factors
Study of a Vegetable shop in a housing society and providing suggestions for redesign with Human Factors considerations.
Team - 2 members
Sai Gayathri Krishnan, Nishtha Luhadia
Mapping the Space
Activity Analysis - Photo Survey
Heat Maps, Movement Map
1. Customers in the space
2. The two Shopkeepers
Posture Study
Dimensioning
Current Positions of Interactions and Exchange
Problem Identification
Milk crates corner is a bottle neck area, people crowding here doesn't allow space for movement
Reach is difficult, causes the shopkeeper as well as customer to bend a lot to for cash transactions.
Second row of vegetables is too far from customers, causes inconvenience to the back and delays the process of buying.
Corner 'L shaped' arrangement is a bottle neck area.
What needs to be solved?
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Setting up the shop in the morning requires the shopkeeper to walk around the shop carrying heavy crates and arranging them in order.
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Current arrangement of the shop is difficult to access, causing back and knee pain from bending and crouching to both- shopkeepers and customers.
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The arrangement does not communicate or facilitate a 'self service' model as intended by the shop owners.
Design Brief
How might we introduce a change in the current arrangement of the vegetable shop to improve movement, access and reach.
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Movement:
How the shopkeepers and the customers navigate through the space to interact with each other.
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Access:
Arrangement of vegetables strategically, to keep more frequently bought items closer to the customer.
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Reach:
Physical distances and heights at which each crate/basket is placed with respect to user.
Solution Ideations
Concept Overview
Solution to Access, Heights and Reach
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A curved framework for sliding crates with two levels so that the shopkeeper does not have to carry crates till the far end of the shop
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Top level of crates placed is inclined to improve reach and suggests a 'self service' model.
Anthropometry and Consideration of Percentiles
Heights of the two rows are based on lower and mid position height of 5th percentile of women.
Solution to Clearance and Space
Cleaner workspace envelopes with fewer overlaps reduces physical strain for both- shopkeepers and customers.
Curved arrangement removes the bottle neck caused by sharp corner.
Milk crate stacks position is spread out to eliminate the bottle neck area.