Fat-Friendly Design and Furniture Selection

Independent research project in collaboration with AllGo and Environments NW, 2019-2020

1/3 of the adult U.S. population is plus size, but you wouldn’t know it based on our seating options.

AllGo is an app that helps fat people go out more with less anxiety. AllGo asks plus size people to rate their comfort in public settings. Over the last several years, founder and CEO Rebecca Alexander has surveyed more than 20,000 plus size people on their experiences with public spaces, apparel, automobiles and more.

I/F partnered with AllGo to ask plus size people how we can make designed spaces more welcoming to them. We have presented on the topic to architects and interior designers, as well as to designers of all kinds from all over the globe for a remote Design Week Portland event.

Thanks to all of the great contributions from our survey respondents and Chair Talk attendees, I/F, AllGo, and Poley Creative made the following video and on-demand course to detail best practices for selecting furniture that is comfortable for people of all sizes!

Example page from the multimedia on-demand course.

Two plus size people sitting on cool furniture, a firm pouf on the left, and a boxed in olive green loveseat on the right.

Chair Talk

In October 2019, we hosted a "Chair Talk" charrette (a design brainstorm) at Environments NW, a lovely furniture showroom in Portland, Oregon. We met some phenomenal plus size AllGo users to discuss the best and worst of seating design for people of size. 

A cheekily smiling plus size woman is replicated on two screens of a videocamera; the videographer stands with hands on hips, checking out the lighting.

Learning from experience

Our volunteer chair-sitters shared vulnerably. We learned about some attendees' most traumatic experiences, being humiliated or even physically injured by unpleasant seating options. We also learned how moving it can be when a space has clearly been designed to meet your needs.

A sun-decked restaurant, with sturdy yellow stools at a bar, vines spilling over a balcony, and a neon sign reading "Palomar"

What does fat friendly furniture selection look like?

We wish more spaces were designed like Palomar, pictured here. There are plenty of seating options, and all of them are sturdy and upholstered.

Photographs by Jordan Hughes, courtesy of Ricky Gomez.

A palm-decorated wallpapered wall covered in family photographs behind tables and pink, standard height, sturdy upholstered chairs.
Two smiling fat women hold up a towel that reads "Wide Load"

We can make fat-friendly spaces, no problem!

The major takeaway about fat-friendly furniture selection is to always provide options in a space - some chairs with arms, some without, some high, some low.

You can find more details in our video and the on-demand course.

Pictured: Collaborator Rebecca Alexander of AllGo on left, in photo from AllGo’s open-source stock photography collection, developed in partnership with Poley Creative.

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