Design and evaluation of pregnant women’s waiting area chairs using an integrated user-need-driven framework

Most existing waiting area chairs for pregnant women adopt the form of general public seating and fail to fully meet the special needs of pregnant women. To develop waiting chairs that better address pregnant women’s needs, this study applied an integrated user-need-centred design and evaluation framework. A user journey map was first used to identify key behavioural nodes, experience pain points, and latent needs of pregnant women during antenatal examination waiting. The Kano model was then applied to analyse 427 valid questionnaires and clarify the roles of different design attributes in shaping user satisfaction. On this basis, experts in relevant fields were invited to use the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate the weights of demand indicators. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was then used to translate user needs into actionable product technical characteristics. Subsequently, Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) was used to compare three preliminary design schemes and select the scheme with the highest score for further refinement. A questionnaire developed with reference to QUEST was then used to compare participants’ perceptions of the selected scheme and existing waiting chairs. The results showed that “assisted rising support” had the highest weight in the AHP analysis, indicating that the design of pregnant women’s waiting area chairs should extend from static sitting comfort to body support and safety assistance throughout the process of sitting down, waiting, posture adjustment, and rising. The QFD analysis further indicated that assisted seat lifting, integrated lumbar and back support, anti-slip structure, and stable assembly were key technical characteristics. The user evaluation results showed that the proposed scheme received higher mean ratings for comfort, safety, practicality, and aesthetics than the sofa and metal waiting chairs. This study clarified the relative importance of pregnant women’s seating needs and the corresponding design priorities, and illustrated their application in the functional and structural design of the proposed scheme. The findings offer a reference for the design and improvement of seating in obstetric waiting areas.