Accelerating urbanisation and a rapidly ageing population in China have heightened the demand for elderly-friendly public facilities.As a critical component, public seating must respond to older adults' physiological and psychosocial needs to support safe mobility and comfortable social interaction.Guided by Kansei engineering, this study triangulated questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and behavioural observations, and analysed the resulting data via the semantic differential method and factor analysis.Four affective descriptors -comfort, gentleness, caring, and vividness -emerged as the key determinants of older users' emotional imagery toward public seats.These dimensions significantly enhance seniors' urban engagement and perceived quality of life.The findings provide both theoretical guidance and practical direction for the design of age-friendly urban seating, emphasising the prioritisation of physical comfort, chromatic warmth, perceived caring, and visual appeal.
Chenxiao Ge (Wed,) studied this question.