Hesitation analysis for exploring difficulties during mental operation in RTA furniture assembly

Abstract

Ready-To-Assemble (RTA) furniture saves manufacturers’ shipping costs, while consumers satisfied having furniture with a reasonable price. However, user’s spatial abilities and understanding vary from person to person, if not clearly convey the information, user will feel confused, and assembly errors may happen. We described an approach for identifying explicit and implicit problems during the process of assembly and employed theory of spatial compatibility to improve the efficiency of furniture assembly. Firstly, we conducted a contextual inquiry study and an in-depth hesitation analysis to identify the problem nodes in the assembly task. Secondly, we apply the theory of grouping, spatial compatibility and space ability for improving user’s assembly instruction and providing users with an assembly guidance system. Finally, a feasibility evaluation was carried out through conducting contextual inquiry and hesitation analysis again. Our results indicate that contextual inquiry and hesitation analysis can identify RTA furniture assembly problems effectively.