IB Design Technology Topic A1.1.5: Workspace Envelopes Notes

Workspace Envelopes: The Space You Can Use

1. A workspace envelope, also called a reach envelope, is the three-dimensional space a user can comfortably reach and occupy while they work.
2. It combines two things: how far you can reach, and how much room your body needs.

Mapping the Envelope

1. Designers map this space so everything a user needs sits inside it, with nothing forcing an awkward stretch or a cramped posture.
2. The data comes from anthropometric tables (from A1.1.2), dynamic measurement, or software simulation, and factors like clothing can affect it.

Reach: Functional and Extended

1. Reach is how far a user can extend their arms or body to interact with something, and it decides where controls, tools, and objects should sit.
2. Functional reach
   1. The comfortable distance you can cover while keeping a good posture, also called the normal working area.
3. Extended reach
   1. The maximum distance you can cover by stretching or leaning, the maximum working area, suited only to things you rarely touch.

Clearance: Room for the Body and Tools

1. Clearance is the space needed to fit a user's body, tools, or movement without obstruction.
2. Reach is about touching things; clearance is about having room to move.
3. Body clearance
   1. Space for the body itself, like legroom under a desk or the width a wheelchair needs to pass.
4. Tool clearance
   1. Space for equipment and motion, like the swing of a door or a chair being pushed back.

Fitting the Envelope to More People

1. One envelope cannot fit everyone, so two strategies stretch a workspace to fit more people, both covered in A1.1.4:
   1. Adjustability changes the workspace to suit the user, through height, angle, and distance adjustment.
   2. A range of sizes offers the design in several sizes based on percentile data.
2. For adjustability, the range usually runs from the 5th percentile female to the 95th percentile male, covering about 95% of users; going wider raises cost sharply.

How Workspaces Used to Be Designed