Being short is good.
Researching this has been both interesting and frustrating. One thing I have definitely learnt is to take care during measurement conversions.
To support this statement there are both psychological and physical considerations. During my research people's insecurities about their height and how they believe people perceive them has become very apparent, almost disturbing at some points. Without quoting anyone in depth, comments and feedback I received/read were mostly negative. What surprised me most is how insecure and upset people can be about their height, with several people using the word "freak". Playing on people's insecurities isn't something that I want to do, or would feel comfortable doing. It is interesting however, the way that height seems to affect relationships with other people. Females in particular, mention how height can affect relationships romantically, but mentioned also are the words "intimidating", "imposing" and "approachable".
The fact that height can affect health is particularly interesting. These health implications include: Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Cardiovascular Issues, RSI, Trauma, and Law of Levers.
RSI and Trauma are heavily related to the surrounding environment and are most likely preventable. Reading about ergonomics and anthropometry I realised that only the 5%-95% of people are taken into account for a lot of product design. (With the bottom 5% being short and the top 5% being tall)
For some design, such as height of doors, head room etc the bottom 5% won't be affected, but for the top 5% it can be a big inconvenience. A lot of the time taking 100% of people into account can be a hassle but sometimes not doing this increases the risk of danger. For example the space allowance on an aeroplane. To alter the design to make it appropriate for everyone means taking out seating, increasing cost per seat/ticket.
(Rather than fill my blog with more statistics etc, if anyone is interested in the subject let me know, and I'll point you in the direction of some useful articles or you can have a look at the research I've gathered so far.)
Researching this has been both interesting and frustrating. One thing I have definitely learnt is to take care during measurement conversions.
To support this statement there are both psychological and physical considerations. During my research people's insecurities about their height and how they believe people perceive them has become very apparent, almost disturbing at some points. Without quoting anyone in depth, comments and feedback I received/read were mostly negative. What surprised me most is how insecure and upset people can be about their height, with several people using the word "freak". Playing on people's insecurities isn't something that I want to do, or would feel comfortable doing. It is interesting however, the way that height seems to affect relationships with other people. Females in particular, mention how height can affect relationships romantically, but mentioned also are the words "intimidating", "imposing" and "approachable".
The fact that height can affect health is particularly interesting. These health implications include: Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Cardiovascular Issues, RSI, Trauma, and Law of Levers.
RSI and Trauma are heavily related to the surrounding environment and are most likely preventable. Reading about ergonomics and anthropometry I realised that only the 5%-95% of people are taken into account for a lot of product design. (With the bottom 5% being short and the top 5% being tall)
For some design, such as height of doors, head room etc the bottom 5% won't be affected, but for the top 5% it can be a big inconvenience. A lot of the time taking 100% of people into account can be a hassle but sometimes not doing this increases the risk of danger. For example the space allowance on an aeroplane. To alter the design to make it appropriate for everyone means taking out seating, increasing cost per seat/ticket.
(Rather than fill my blog with more statistics etc, if anyone is interested in the subject let me know, and I'll point you in the direction of some useful articles or you can have a look at the research I've gathered so far.)
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