SHIRU’s high chair, more like a why chair
Every single day, hundreds of Brown students flock to SHIRU Cafe on Angell Street, eager to begin their day with a free coffee, or spend hours occupying a much-coveted spot at one of their limited tables. I am definitely one of those people — especially now that they have working wifi — who sits there for hours, preferring the hum of conversation over the deadly silence of libraries. I noticed, however, that after about an hour of sitting there, I would leave with my neck cramping, back straining and and a jacket muddied from being trampled on.
The main culprit of these issues is the high chair. Or, the odd cross between a bar stool and sofa seat. Seemingly innocuous, the high chairs at Shiru are designed in the most inconvenient way possible, considering their placement around the cafe. I’ve summarised below some of my main frustrations.
As can be seen in Figure 1, the chair has a curved metal backrest that also acts as an armrest. The height of the backrest from the seat is seven inches, and its positioning relative to the width of the seat is inconveniently too far back. This results in the person sitting on the chair attempting to lean back for a break, and then desperately trying to pull themselves upright after being confronted with the harsh metal bar pressing against their lower spine. The design choice may be suitable for a short conversation over coffee, or a quick meeting with a professor, which may have been the intended audience. However, for someone like me, it is ergonomically a disaster. The recommended angle is a recline of 100° — 110°.
Furthermore, the armrests are completely useless. They offer the affordance of resting your arms, however, are too low to be used without forcing yourself to slouch in an uncomfortable manner. Size constraints and low implementation costs may be the reason behind this unusually crude curved metal. Speaking of the curved metal, the rounded chairs occupy enough space to force a few bumps and apologies when getting up to collect your coffee. The cramped row of chairs offer terrible memorability, as despite struggling to stand up once, you’re probably going to bump into someone again on your next bathroom break.
Additionally, it’s impossible to hang your jacket on the back of your chair as is often natural in most seating arrangements. You can see the struggle in Figure 2. The chair offers no affordances on this, resulting in me usually sitting on my jacket or leaving it on a pile on the floor, making the entire process of sitting down very inefficient. It also means someone will probably walk by and step on my fallen jacket.
As can be seen in Figure 3, to improve the interface, I’ve added a slightly higher and rectangular backrest. This would allow the user to comfortably lay back with the ergonomically correct angle. It would also let them easily hang their jacket. The lack of a rounded frame would mean more space would be conserved, allowing the user to easily climb on to and get off the chair. Another significant improvement would be the addition of adjustable armrests. For those who’d prefer not to use one, they could lower it fully. For someone like me, who likes to rest one elbow, I could easily just raise that specific armrest by sliding it up the backrest and locking it in place. These improvements may lead to slightly higher expenses, however would benefit students in the long run.
