This weeks lecture was titled Body - “Man is the measure of all things” and human centric design. The conversation was opened with the declaration that all design of objects and spaces is human-scaled, ergonomic, made for the size and shape of the human body. Observing my immediate surroundings, this statement mostly holds up. Except when it doesn’t.
Many systems have been developed in order to accommodate the variety of shapes and sizes that humans come in, e.g.: clothing sizing, adjustable chairs, handedness-agnostic computer peripherals, etc. In other cases, standards based on common dimensions exist (e.g. standard US door size 36” x 80” (0.91 m x 2.03 m)) to accord to the majority of the population, but little concession is made to alert those who don’t conform.
As evidenced by highway signage, there are serious consequences and potential harm for sizes unanticipated by the design, and thus much effort is put into preventative signage:
So where’s the correlate for our human spaces? The only thing I can think of is in maximum capacity warnings in elevators, but never (well perhaps on rare occasion) would they apply to a single person.
In response I’ve made “maximum clearance” signage for everyday spaces:
For both passages I always hunch just a little. Oddly since measuring the actual clearances I’m now comfortably walking through our entry gate whereas I still take the stairs a bit cautiously with a little less bounch (I’m roughly 5’11”). The extra bit of awareness is similar to what I now feel when purchasing food in many New York City establishments that advertise a dish’s caloric count alongside its price.
The signage uses standard US highway typography and colors: